Ten Days
by R. R. Ten'ou
Summary: Sequel to Capricious and Do you like the color Blue? A series of random events take place in a documentary style story over the course of ten days.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT. I would like to borrow them for a day… but that's not likely to happen. So for now, I'll just content myself with daydreams.

Author's Notes: **This takes place after _Capricious_ and **_**Do you like the color Blue?** _This is going to confuse you tremendously if you haven't read them.

As always, comments and reviews shall be read carefully and cherished.

Much thanks goes out to my wonderful friend – KameTerra, who oh-so nicely beta-ed these many chapters for me. Thank you very much.

* * *

Ten Days

Chapter One – Murder! A body is found in the sewers

By R. R. Ten'ou

Something wasn't right. Leo knew deep down that something was most assuredly, almost completely not right in the sewers. It was a feeling that couldn't be denied. He and his brothers knew the rhythm of the sewers better than anyone else – the strange rumblings that could be heard from the innermost depths of the darkness – the loud shaking and tumultuous quakes that rang out when the subway came through – the sounds of flowing water when the rains had backed up a good portion of the tunnels – and the sounds of rats scampering through the muck-filled toil. It had become first, second, and third nature to all four of the brothers--but especially to Leonardo.

The two years he'd spent away from home (a year had passed since his homecoming) were enough to lock all of the sounds, images, and feelings of the sewer into the foreground and background of his mind.

"Guys." He only had to say it once. His brothers stopped their chattering and ceased all movement. For a moment Leo couldn't see them in the depths of the sewer darkness – but only for a moment.

They were listening.

He was listening.

Something wasn't right.

The four brothers of mutant variety had just come back from a training run through the city. The night had been quiet, unusually quiet for a Friday, and so they'd decided to come home early. Complete with a pizza in arms, they were ready for a quiet early morning at home. From the moment the manhole cover sealed them from the outside world, the four had chatted amicably, talking about this and that – the smell of pizza, the tv guide listing for the wee hours, and the previous training run.

They were far from home – farther into the sewers than their lair was. Usually they would have ran the rooftops, making a game of seeing who could make it home the fastest; but tonight the oncoming weather had broken their usual regimen. That night, in early February, it was going to snow. So they'd found the nearest manhole (after somehow managing to snag a pizza) and had sunken down into the sewers, choosing to trek through the stale, muggy maze that was the sewer system.

It hadn't even been five minutes since their journey had brought them through the manhole cover and down a familiar tunnel or two. They were deep, deep underground. They knew they were not too far from the subway system, as they had heard the familiar rumblings twice in that five minute span.

Leo stood still, waiting for a hint – a sound – something that would make clear the trouble he felt. Seconds went by and nothing came – no sounds, no clarification. Yet he still had that uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something was wrong.

Leo looked back at his brothers, hoping they would have an answer. Perhaps they had heard something he'd failed to in the passing moments. Or did they even know why he had stopped them?

_What is it?_ Michelangelo seemed to ask, his head cocked to the side as he looked curiously at his eldest brother. The pizza box was still cradled carefully in his arms, as if he was concerned for the safety of the cheesy treat.

Leo motioned with a nod of his head, signaling for Mike to listen on. Donatello and Raphael needed no reminder as they peered intently into the darkness ahead. It seemed the three brothers knew _exactly_ why their older brother had stopped them.

All four brothers kept quiet; yet no noise came. Nothing came. The bad feeling remained and Leo motioned for them to move slowly forward. No words were needed.

The bad feeling deepened in the pit of Leo's stomach. It was a hollow ache – like he hadn't eaten in a good two or three days. The empty sensation rose into his throat, causing his breathing to deepen and his apprehension to scale to soaring levels. Leo closed his eyes for a brief moment in an attempt to quell the sickening feeling. It never passed and he was forced to take in one huge gulp of air before turning his mind to the atmosphere surrounding him.

Leo could hear deep breathing – someone… one of his brothers was breathing far too loudly. Inhale. Exhale. It was repetitive and loud and Leo silently reminded himself to berate his brothers when they returned home. The repetition continued until a thought struck Leo – it wasn't his brothers he'd heard breathing so loudly. It was himself.

In… Out… In… Out… _Control yourself Leonardo_.

But he couldn't. That feeling sank deeper and deeper in his gut and at the same time, kept climbing higher and higher in his throat. The fear wanted escape – it wanted a way out.

As he became aware of his breathing, another rhythmic sensation captured his senses. His heart was beating far faster than he was used to.

Thunk-thunk. Thunk-thunk.

_Stop it!_ This wasn't like him. This wasn't the cool, calm, composed Leonardo.

And suddenly Raphael was standing before him, a pointed look in his narrowed eyes. _What's wrong?_

_Nothing._ Leo shook his head in reply.

All previous sensations ceased and in that moment Leonardo was able to compose himself. Looking into the eyes of his red-banded brother, Leonardo calmed and was once more at peace. The feeling in his stomach shrank to a minor annoyance and Leo decided it was time to end the feeling of dread once and for all.

He motioned again for his brothers to follow him.

They moved cautiously a few feet ahead, and then around a bend, and another bend, and still they heard and saw nothing.

Leonardo halted his brothers yet again, with a simple glance. He motioned for them to stay put – he was going to go on ahead and scout the area.

Yet as he turned around, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking behind him, he saw Raphael, none too happy. _You're not goin anywhere without us._ Raph seemed to be saying.

Leo looked at his brother sternly. _Stay here_. He pointed at the ground for added effect.

_No_. Raphael slowly turned his head from side to side, to emphasize his point.

Don looked at Mike, as if their youngest brother could possibly know what was going on. Mike simply shrugged his shoulders and looked ahead once more; though secretly and slowly he brought the pizza up higher, hoping to take in a whiff of yummy goodness.

Don too went back to their silent vigil.

_Raph. Stay here_. Leo mouthed, though no sound came out. He and Raph were still engrossed in their own silent conversation.

_No_. Raph repeated silently.

_Hey!_ Don came up beside them, urgently motioning into the darkness ahead of them. The two older brothers looked at their purple clad brother, as if they'd just missed something – something important. And they had.

Ever so faintly, a clank of metal could be heard tapping against the stonework in the distance ahead. The brothers looked at each other quizzically before moving forward slowly.

A few feet farther and the noise grew louder. Soon they were close enough to hear voices – human voices in the slight distance. The mutant brothers inched closer and closer, until they could see the undeniably bright light of a spotlight that had been lowered down into the sewer. The ninja team moved as close as they could, sticking to the shadows, and hiding behind protruding pieces in the wall.

What they saw was something they had never expected. The people talking ahead were police – investigators, crime scene photographers, and a few men from the fire department. The clanging sound of metal was a stretcher being lowered down the manhole. As the turtles approached, they saw the difficulty the fire department was having in lowering the contraption through the manhole. Yet as they watched, the humans were successful in finally getting it to the ground.

"Thanks!" The chief waved a hand at the firemen above as a few of his men tackled moving a white shape onto the metal stretcher. "Poor girl…" he turned to help his men.

Leonardo narrowed his eyes, trying to make out the form beneath the white sheet that the police were plopping onto the stretcher.

_It's a body!_ Leo realized as an arm unceremoniously fell from below the sheet. A police officer moved quickly to get it back into place and strapped her in.

Not just a body – but a female body. The hand was feminine, with painted nails, a few dangling bracelets, and a single silver ring encircling the first finger. The exposed limb was white and clammy, despite the muddy contents smeared across the skin and the single dimmed light allotted to the onlookers.

Leonardo looked across the tunnel, where Michelangelo stood behind a build-up of bricks and rock. Though all four of the brothers had seen their share of death in the way of enemies, and previous murders in the streets, seeing a dead body and the aftermath of a murder, still shook the brothers immensely. Some took it harder than others, Leonardo noted, as his youngest brother closed his eyes in grief.

Some waited until the situation had been examined to the fullest extent. Leo looked at Donatello, who stood slightly behind Mike behind another pile of debris.

And some were better at hiding it than others. Leo didn't have to turn around to know Raphael's expression. He'd seen it far too many times to date. He knew his brother was fuming behind him, and well within good reason.

Leo himself, while saddened by such an event, focused his mind solely on the problem at hand. If there was a murder, surely there would be an investigation. Hopefully that investigation wouldn't come anywhere near the home of his family.

Seconds later, the stretcher encasing the body was being hoisted back into the air and through the manhole. The turtles watched on in increasing interest as the body disappeared through the manhole and the spotlight was shut off in favor of small handheld flashlights.

A dead body had been found in the sewers – a dead girl's body. The fact hung in the cold, damp air of the sewers long after the turtles turned to leave.

--------------------------------------------------

_It seems that the police department in the lower Manhattan area needs to step up its work. Crimes in the area are always at record highs, and rumors abound that the department depends upon the aid of unknown, unnamed vigilantes to capture half of the criminals they bring in…_ the man on the television blared out in his smartly dressed business attire.

The particular viewers in this area of the sewers didn't care for the rhetoric the television man seemed to be relaying. Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo and their sensei, Master Splinter, watched intently, waiting for an explanation from the television. They wanted to know exactly why a dead body was found in the sewers.

"Man needs to learn the difference between vigilante and ninja. Nin-ja." Michelangelo said the last word slowly as if he were in full contact with the man on TV, teaching him a lesson.

"Yeah Mike... because everyone knows that ninja are littering the streets of New York." Raphael cut in sarcastically.

"Guys, pipe down. We can't hear the rest of his speech," Leonardo requested of his brothers. All attention in the room, that of four turtles and one rat, focused back on the television set before them.

After they had realized what was going on and though they weren't being followed, the four turtles had made a hasty retreat from the police force and their investigation. The brothers, using ninja-like speed, had made it back to the lair in record time – faster than they would have had they been racing each other as previously planned.

The pizza was ignored (at first anyway) and the television had been turned instantly to the local news channel. Their sensei had been informed immediately after (as they had interrupted his "stories") and the family had sat staring through boring sitcom after boring sitcom, waiting for the urgent news report they knew would come.

…_the University will, of course, take appropriate measures to inform the rest of our student body and faculty of the dangers so that another unfortunate tragedy like this will not occur. We regret that this act of hatred was committed upon one of our students and our hearts and prayers go out to the family of the deceased…_

"He sounds so concerned," Raphael spoke up again in his usual sarcastic manner.

"Silence Raphael!" This time it was Master Splinter who halted the distracting comments. But the rest of the speech was lost and the screen switched back to the familiar setting of the Channel 10 news room.

_This address by Dean Wilhelm was given today at 1 pm - just hours after the body of 21 year old McKayla Saunders (a student at NYU) was found in the sewers, several feet below a cracked manhole. Police are investigating the area and hope to identify a suspect within the hour,_ the local news anchor reported to her audience.

Leonardo sighed and clicked the television off with the universal remote. "This is a little too close to home for my liking."

"Mine too… but as long as they stick to that area we should be fine… if their investigation comes too close to the lair, I assure you, we will be aware of it." Donatello explained to his brothers.

Their sensei sat in silence going over the details in his mind. His sons debate did not go unheard and the aged rat took every point of view into account.

"That doesn't make this any less of a bad situation." Leo sighed again. "If they come any closer…"

"What's the big deal?" Raphael interjected. "Like Donnie said, if they come too close, we'll be the first ones to know about it."

"Someone was killed… and we're only worried about ourselves." Mikey commented disappointedly.

"Mikey…" Leo didn't quite know what to say to his youngest brother. It was a sad fact – but one that they'd gotten used to, living on and under the streets of New York.

"Yes. It's sad Mikey… but we have to think about our safety as well." Donnie cut in, taking the explanation away from their fearless leader.

"I know… but still…" Mikey finished lamely. He knew, deep down, that they were right. His brothers were shook up about this incident just as much as he was – they were just concerned about the safety of the family. As much as Mike kept relaying this tidbit over in his head, he still couldn't shake the sadness or the disappointment.

"Tell me this doesn't mean we're confined to the lair." Raphael changed the subject and took on a dangerous tone. He hated times when he was not allowed out. Just the fact alone that he was not allowed, drove him crazy.

"No. But keep an ear out, alright?" Leo explained.

"My sons." All attention was brought to their sensei. "Listen. That is all you need do for the time at hand – listen. Listen when you are at home. Listen when you are away." His advice was simple by all means – but was heeded by all four.

"Yes father." The brothers echoed.

"And Michelangelo," sensei addressed his youngest.

"Yes?" Mikey gulped.

"Make sure you bring cookies tomorrow." Master Splinter smiled.

Michelangelo perked up immediately. "Yes sensei!"


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT. I would like to borrow them for a day… but that's not likely to happen. So for now, I'll just content myself with daydreams.

Author's Notes: **This takes place after _Capricious_ and **_**Do you like the color Blue?** _This is going to confuse you tremendously if you haven't read them.

As always, comments and reviews shall be read carefully and cherished.

Much thanks goes out to my wonderful friend – KameTerra, who oh-so nicely beta-ed these many chapters for me. Thank you very much.

* * *

Ten Days

Chapter Two – Mystery! Another body is found

By R. R. Ten'ou

Although for once in her life Moose preferred seeing the color blue instead of orange, she was quite happy to have Michelangelo over that evening. It'd been far too long since she'd seen any of the four brothers – in fact, she hadn't seen all of them together since Candon's farewell party over three months ago. Still, that didn't stop her weekly baking sessions with Michelangelo, or her once in a blue moon chats with Donatello, or even the occasional check-up with Leonardo – she'd even seen Raphael twice since then.

They were coming around less and less, and Moose had the sneaking suspicion that they were doing it on purpose. It was almost as if they were trying to disappear from her life gradually.

So on that particular Saturday night, Moose was quite happy to have Michelangelo over. She'd promised him treats in the form of cookies and brownies, if only he'd come keep her company. And Mikey, unable to resist sweets and junk-food of any form, never failed to show up every Saturday night like clockwork. He was the only one of the brothers that still came over on a regular basis.

On this particular Saturday evening they were working on a batch of butter cookies all cut into shapes of stars, pumpkins, and the occasional Christmas tree – all leftover from the recent holiday season. Moose was washing out a bowl in the sink when she looked to see Mikey crouched in front of the oven window, staring inside. His face revealed the innocent excitement of a child that was rare to see, even in him. Mikey was always rather upbeat, but his demeanor was usually more comparable to a charismatic surfer.

Mikey watched intently as the marvelous, sugary wonders in the oven turned from white to a delicious golden brown, but he couldn't help but feel as if someone was watching him, too. Moose, being the only other person in the room, was the obvious culprit. Mike tried to ignore her, forcing his eyes to stare into the oven at the still baking cookies. But the feeling surging through his brain turned into a strange sensation. Mikey suddenly felt a bit exposed.

Moose was now crouched down right next to him, staring right at him. It suddenly hit him what was going on. He turned three shades of red and covered his nose.

"Dude! I have a bat in the cave don't I!?"

"What? No!" Moose laughed and removed herself from beside Mikey. "You kinda looked like a kid on Christmas morning."

"Christmas was two months ago – at least." Michelangelo opened the oven door to take a better look inside. "And I think these are done."

Moose grabbed the oven mittens and motioned for Mike to move. He did so, but not before taking in a large breath of cookie scented goodness.

Waving the emanating heat away from her eyes, Moose took the tray out and set it on the counter beside her.

"Moose… what's up with the cat?" Moose turned her attention away from the cooling rack, where she was placing the hot cookies they'd just taken from the oven.

She stared at Michelangelo for a few moments, as if she hadn't heard what he'd said. He was seated on a barstool at the end of the bar-counter, staring at her window – the one he'd closed behind him after climbing through earlier that night. Though he was obviously intrigued, he looked comfortable sitting in her kitchen – but then again, Mikey always made himself comfortable wherever he was.

Moose followed his gaze back to the window. "Oh! The cat?"

A female calico stood against the window's frosty glass, pawing against the impassable barrier. Though neither Moose nor Mikey could hear it, the cat was mewing slowly, begging to gain entrance to the warm world within. Its sorrowful yellow eyes looked back and forth from Mike to Moose, as if the tiny creature were wondering which of the two would be its savior.

"Yeah. The cat." Mikey answered, looking back to Moose. "What did you think I was talking about? Aliens from Planet X? In cat-form disguise. They're evil alien ninjas. They can do that, you know."

"The cat." Moose rolled her eyes at his obvious amusement and went back to scooping cookies from the pan to the rack. "Poor thing has been out there for days. I fed it some tuna the other day…"

"Poor little guy's all skin and bones," Mikey looked sorrowful at the sight of the starving creature. Indeed, the calico looked malnourished, and its fur was hanging off its slender figure.

"Yeah… well… I think it thinks that the fire escape is a drive through window." Moose waved the cat off, hoping it would get the message. She'd never been one for cats. Show her a big-eyed puppy dog, though, and she'd go all fuzzy inside.

Mikey, on the other hand, melted for creatures of all kinds. He'd loved drawing animals as a child – and had always wished he could someday have a pet of his own. His wish had been granted in the form of Klunk, his orange tabby.

Mike looked on at the starving, shivering creature on the fire escape. It had snowed the night before, as predicted, and Michelangelo was sure that the cat would freeze to death if left to his own devices. No living creature deserved to die in such a cruel and heartless way.

At this thought, his mind shifted to the previous night's expedition, and the discovery of the dead body in the sewer system. He had been distraught all night and found it hard to sleep when it came time. When he awoke the next morning, he had been surprisingly cheerful, as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He'd gone about his daily routine - consisting of training, food, and video games. None of his brothers had mentioned the midnight discovery.

His depression had been warded off all day, as if he'd conveniently forgotten the entire ordeal. Then, all in one moment, as he peered looking at the cat outside, it had come back and hit him full force.

Maybe this is what Moose had felt like – those few months ago.

The cat slowed down in its mewing. Mike watched the feline lower itself from its standing position, only to perch upon the metal grating that was the fire escape landing. He couldn't do anything for the dead girl, but he could do something for the suffering life before him.

Michelangelo got up from his seat and moved toward the window with obvious intentions.

"Mikey. Don't you dare bring that cat inside. This is a no-pets allowed apartment." Moose hissed. "I'll get in trouble!"

"Since when do you care about the rules?" Mikey looked back as his hands reached the windowsill.

Moose couldn't answer – he was right. When had she started to care about the rules? She watched as he brought the window up and scooped the tiny frame of the calico into his arms.

"Don't you just love it here, Mr. Pringles? Isn't it warm and comfy?" Mike spoke to the cat in a comforting tone. "Don't you just love the nice, short blonde lady?"

"I'll have you know, you and I are the same height Michelangelo." Moose shook the spatula at the turtle and cat pair.

"Not the point. Mr. Pringles likes it here Moose. You should keep him." Mike smiled and petted the cat's slim, furry head with his free hand. The cat soaked up the attention and soon was emanating a motor-boat purring sound.

"I can't keep… _Mr. Pringles_?" Moose turned and placed her cookie sheet in the sink full of hot water to soak.

"But… but he'll starve Moose! And besides, haven't you been lonely without Candon?" Mike pleaded, ignoring her question as to his choice of cat names. After all, Mr. Pringles was a good name. And though Michelangelo was obviously confused as to the cat's gender, the name fit.

Moose looked at the cat intently. It _was_ cute. And she _was_ lonely without Candon. Yet that feeling of loneliness didn't make her regret her decision to send him off to Los Angeles, where his band was trying to make it big. They'd had mentions of a record deal – the reason he'd gone west in the first place – but it had fallen through not a week after he'd arrived. That night he'd called Moose, and after a long conversation with his little sister, decided to stay in L.A. He was certain that maybe she wasn't the only one who needed to make it on her own.

For herself, Moose had found a new job – or rather, one had found her. She'd been hired by April to run the antique shop (the second – Second Time Around) while April and Casey were out seeking artifacts and all around junk – which was pretty much all the time, now that business had taken off. Moose loved it. It was a chance to get to know April and Casey a little better (as well as get over her short-lived crush). And now and again, right after closing – she got to see the turtles - when they bothered to stop by. But as mentioned before, their visits were becoming few and far in between.

She felt no doubt that without her continued contact with April and Casey, she would have never seen the turtles again.

She felt no doubt, that without all six of her friends she'd never have gotten through the past three months.

Moose still thought of him – the little boy – from time to time. A phone call to her parents had revealed all truths, including the boy's name… Jacob. His face still haunted the back of her mind… she'd even considered seeking professional help for a while. The week after her brother had left, something in Moose had snapped and she'd essentially broke down altogether.

Even thinking about it now made her insides shrivel up and her eyes start to water. When Moose thought about the feelings that had encased her during that dark period, she felt like vomiting. She never wanted to go back to that state of mind again.

It had been April and Casey that pulled her back up – gave her a job and a place of support. They were exceptional friends, and Moose knew that if had they been any different, she would have never made it as long as she had.

April had constantly planned girls' night out trips for herself and Moose – though few actually happened. Still, though the two had never carried on like best friends, Moose had found a sort of mentor in April.

Casey had been Casey. That was all Moose had needed from him. He'd stopped by once in a while, with or without April, to check up on Moose and make sure she was alright. He'd told her about his nightly patrols around the neighborhood - sometimes with Raphael, sometimes without.

Since then, Moose had gone through what she felt were all the proper grieving stages – including anger toward herself, denial, extreme sadness, and finally acceptance. She'd accepted that the little boy had died, and while she still felt partially at blame, she knew it was time to move on.

"Quick Mr. Pringles!" Moose snapped out of her thoughts and looked back to Mikey. "While she's not looking!" he'd snagged a sugar cookie and was nudging it to the cat's mouth. The feline sniffed the proffered treat a few times and slowly nibbled at the edge.

"Michelangelo! That's made of sugar. Not good for kitties." She made to snatch the treat, but Mike was far too quick.

"No way. Klunk loves cookies. They never hurt him." Mikey brought the cookie back to the cat's mouth.

Moose thought to herself for a moment. "You have a cat? Why don't you take _Mr. Pringles_ home with you?"

"Can't. Leo and Raph say one cat is enough. And Donnie doesn't like it when Klunk moves his papers." Mikey explained. His attention was still focused on the cat on his arm.

"That's because one cat _is_ enough." The pair turned their attention away from the sickly feline and toward the window to see Leonardo coming in.

"Leo!" Moose brightened considerably. "I was hoping you'd stop by! You guys won't be able to come over anymore… what with my cousin arriving tomorrow."

"I'm sorry Piper. We can't stay." Leo addressed the girl by her real name, unlike his brothers and their friends, who still called her by her nickname.

"What?" Michelangelo pouted slightly. "But we were gonna make brownies!" Brownies meant he'd have more to take home and stash away in his room. He was usually given explicit instructions from Moose to share the baked goodies with his brothers – but he often didn't comply. Come to think of it, there were a few extra brownies left, stashed away in a random drawer in his room. Remembering this, Mikey's pout disappeared and his mind wandered elsewhere.

"Sorry Mikey. We have to get back home. Now." Leo instructed. His mood wasn't overly serious, but there was a sense of urgency in his voice. They really did have to get back home soon. "Another dead body has been found in the sewer - another college student."

Mikey's thoughts were interrupted, and with a jerk of his head, he settled all attention on his eldest brother. "Another one? Seriously… they're starting to ruin my fun."

"I heard about the first one on the news the other day. But, what's that got to do with you guys?" Moose reentered the conversation. She was curious now… why did a dead body and the sewers mean they had to get home straightaway? And where did they live, anyway? Moose suddenly felt out of the loop.

"Piper…" Leo started, but was cut off by Mike.

"Dude. I can't believe nobody ever told you." Michelangelo ruffled the forgotten cat in his arms. "We live in the sewers."

"Mikey… she wasn't supposed to know that." For some reason – whether it was because they didn't want her to know or they felt it wasn't relevant or the topic had never come up – the turtles had never told Moose about their home. Nor had they told her about their sensei.

"Why not? I'm your friend, ain't I?" Moose asked. Both April and Casey knew all about the turtles. Now that they'd known Moose for almost six months, wasn't it about time they stopped with the secrets?

"Yeah Leo. She's our friend." Mike pleaded.

"Even so…" Maybe it wasn't quite time, Leo decided.

"Even so, nothing." Moose ran a hand through her hair in frustration. "I've known you guys for a while now… and I understand why you keep so much in… but…"

"But?" Mike prodded.

"It kinda hurts." Moose rubbed her left arm at her side with the other, awkwardly. The silence ensued for a few moments, nobody knowing exactly what to say. It was an odd atmosphere, and even Michelangelo kept quiet, choosing to switch his attention over to the cat.

"Piper, I promise you… someday you'll learn all. But today… We gotta get going Mike." Leo sighed and offered his version of an apology.

Moose nodded in defeat and watched as both turtles crossed the living area and, one after the other, climbed out the window.

Moose never noticed that Michelangelo had taken the cat with him.

* * *

This chapter was fun to write. For the most part, writing this helped to clear my head in the chaos that was to come in the next few chapters. Michelangelo is by far one of the easier turtles to write. And of course Moose helps out a lot with that. I can really see those two getting along so well – mainly because Mikey gets along well with everyone, and Moose still needs a connection into that 'world'. 

I'm trying to shuffle around a lot with this story. I want to include a bit from everyone in it. I know that some characters are going to be harder to write than others (::cough:: Raphael), but hopefully this will challenge me to break through any barriers I have with writing certain characters (::cough:: Leonardo). So far, I've found the characters easiest for me to write are Mikey, Donnie, and Casey. Candon was easiest to write in the last story… which is half the reason I got rid of him. : )

Love to all.

Ten'ou


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT. I would like to borrow them for a day… but that's not likely to happen. So for now, I'll just content myself with daydreams.

Author's Notes: This takes place after _Capricious_ and _Do you like the color Blue? _This is going to confuse you tremendously if you haven't read them.

As always, comments and reviews shall be read carefully and cherished.

Much thanks goes out to my wonderful friend – KameTerra, who oh-so nicely beta-ed these many chapters for me. Thank you very much.

* * *

Ten Days 

Chapter Three – Investigate! Donatello finds a clue

By R. R. Ten'ou

"Almost there."

After the second murder, Donatello felt it was in his family's best interest for him to do a little snooping. This, of course, meant he had to hack into the police department's files. It was a no-brainer for Don; but it would take some concentration – and his brothers weren't helping; particularly the eldest.

"Have you found anything yet Don?" Leonardo asked from the doorway. Alright, so Leo was being a little impatient – and maybe a little annoying. Leo wanted to get down to the bottom of this – to figure out what was going on. So Don supposed his brother had the right to be a little edgy.

He'd managed to get past a few hours worth of walls while Leo came in and out of the room at various intervals, always asking about the latest development in Don's hacking abilities. Donnie tried to ignore his brother, keeping his attention on the set of problems in front of him. But it was getting harder and harder to escape the questions and comments that Leonardo seemed intent on plaguing him with.

"Not yet. I'm still trying to get past the main firewall." Donnie tried to explain. He turned back to the screen before him and went to clacking away at the keyboard.

"We need to find out who's doing this. And why." Leo came fully into the room once more. He stood in place for a few moments, leaning against the doorframe.

"I know, Leo." Don replied halfheartedly, his attention on the computer screen before him.

"This is getting out of hand. And it's getting too close to our lair." Leo spoke more to himself than anyone else, and began pacing the room just behind Donnie.

"I know, Leo." Donnie replied once more.

"Our home could be in danger at any moment. We don't need them investigating in this area." Leo seemed unusually adamant at getting his point across. More often, it would have been one of the other brothers that Leo would be lecturing to… unless Leo didn't realize he was doing it. Donnie had to wonder – maybe it was more for Leo's sake than it was for his.

"I know, Leo." His normally calm demeanor was getting frazzled at his brother's continued speech.

"We need to figure this out…"

"Leo!" Don exclaimed in exasperation.

"Have you found something?" Leo stopped his pacing and turned to Don, a bright look of hope adorning his features. His hope was short-lived as he studied the look upon Donatello's features.

"No." Don was quiet obviously annoyed. "Get out."

"What's all the commotion in here?" Michelangelo strolled into the room, his curiosity piqued and a plate of chocolate brownies in hand. He looked from brother to brother, still at a loss as to the goings-on of the room.

"Mikey. Take big brother away. Now." It was simple. It was a command. Donnie needed Leo out of his personal space immediately.

"Sure thing Donnie." Michelangelo didn't understand, but he was willing to comply. He grasped his eldest brother by the wrist and went to lead him out of the room.

"But Don…" Leo was ready to fight back. He had just as much reason to be there. This was his family too – his home that could be potentially in danger.

"Leave. Now." Don commanded again. If he were to get any work done, it would be in a brother-free environment, for the moment.

Leo didn't respond, and for once, let Mikey pull him out of the room.

"You know how he gets Leo. Or better yet, you know how _you_ get." Mikey explained merrily. "Here, have a brownie."

"Thanks Mike." Leo smiled and took the proffered tasty treat.

"They taste fine to you?" Mike asked innocently, and nobody would have guessed his ulterior motives.

"Yeah. But I thought you two didn't get to make the brownies last night." Leo said in between bites.

Mikey waited for his brother to finish the rest of his brownie before answering: "We didn't. This batch has been hiding in my room for a few weeks. I finally found them."

"What?" Leo looked instantly disgusted. "Mikey… that's… I think I'm going to be sick." He covered his mouth with a hand and stalked away, his eyes narrowed in annoyance.

"What's his problem?" Michelangelo wondered aloud, more to himself than anyone else. He _knew_ what Donnie's problem was – he was going through the same feeling of frustration that plagued all their minds, yet Donnie was the one with the means to gather information at the moment. Raphael and Michelangelo had the good common sense to stay away from Don when he was glued to his computer. But Leo – Leo was acting unusually preoccupied with this mystery for someone who, just the other day, was preaching stuff about waiting and listening. It was almost as if Leonardo was trying to get his mind off something else by doing what he did best – brooding and leading.

"Have you _looked_ at your room lately, shell for brains?" Raphael turned from his place on the couch, where he had gone essentially unnoticed. Mike was knocked out of his thoughts at his brother's voice.

"Yes. I _do_ sleep in there." Mike scowled. "And it's nowhere near as bad as your room, Raph."

"At least I don't keep week-old bakery items lodged up on shelves."

"They were in a drawer, thank you very much."

"And that's soooo much better."

Donatello listened to his brothers' quibbling from the next room and sighed. He turned back to the computer screen, content with the silence and the absence of Leo, and went to typing away again. He was almost there – he was sure of it. Just a few more seconds… waiting… waiting… type some more… waiting… type a little more…

And set! He was past the main firewall. Now the only thing left to do was to browse the files.

Click, click, click

The keyboard went unused as Don opted this time for the mouse. Navigating police files wasn't much harder than navigating the internet, once you successfully got in. Though the initial hack-in had taken a few hours, from here on out it would be smooth sailing.

He looked over a few article listings – a case about a mugging here, a drive-by shooting there… a couple hundred rapists… a few prostitute reports… and the occasional indecent exposure.

_There it is!_

"McKayla Saunders – Female, 21 years of age. Sandra Parker – Female, 19 years of age. Both victims were undergraduate students of the English department at the College of Arts and Sciences at New York University." Don read the information aloud as he copied it down onto a notebook.

"Evidence of struggle with both victims. Anything more substantial?" he asked the computer screen for answers.

"Both victims were found with an excerpt from Shakespeare in pockets." Now there was a clue! Donnie's eyes continued scanning the screen before him.

"This woman whom thou mad'st to be my help,

And gav'st me as thy perfect gift, so good,

So fit, so acceptable, so Divine,

That from her hand I could suspect no ill,

And what she did, whatever in itself,

Her doing seem'd to justify the deed;"

"Guys!" he clicked the page closed, grabbed his notebook and exited the room. A few choruses of "yeah" echoed through the lair, and Don almost swore he could hear the sound of retching coming from the bathroom. "I'm going to April's!" he called aloud as he made his way out the front exit.

Donatello had research to conduct.

------------------------------------------

April sighed in contentment. It was a dreary Sunday outside – yet she wasn't going to let her self-proclaimed day off lie in ruin. With Casey off doing God only knew what, April had decided to spend the day relaxing indoors. She broke out her favorite raspberry sherbet and settled on the couch before the television.

That is, until a knock at the door shook her out of any and all notions of relaxation. Her apartment being upstairs from the shop meant it could have been only one of five people at the door: one of the turtles or perhaps even Moose.

She stretched from her seat and stood up. Scratching her side and grimacing, she resigned herself to her fate and crossed the living room slowly. Brushing her fiery hair away from her eyes, she turned the knob with her free hand and cracked it open to find Donatello standing out in the hall, waiting expectantly.

"Donnie." Though she didn't care for the fact that her day off was nominated to be kaput, April couldn't help but be semi-cheerful in the presence of her best friend. "What brings you by?"

"I've actually got a favor to ask of you, April." Don entered when April motioned for him to.

"What is it Don?" she remarked at his serious, yet quizzical demeanor. April closed the door behind her and watched as the purple banded turtle made a bee-line straight to her collection of odd and old books in the far corner of the room.

"Do you have any books – any collective volumes – of Shakespeare?" Don asked April, peering over the history and science books that littered her apartment bookcase.

"Not that I know of. I've never really been a fan. Why?" April shook her head negatively as she watched the purple masked turtle investigate her books.

"Another body has been found in the tunnels - this time in the east tunnels."

"Don! That's closer to the lair than the first one."

"I know. I'm afraid of what might happen next time, since the police seem to be investigating extensively in the sewers." Don stopped examining the books long enough to peer at April over his shoulder.

"And what does Shakespeare have to do with any of it?" April asked, and her friend went back to his searching.

"Besides attending NYU, the police found another common trait the bodies share. An excerpt from something Shakespeare wrote has been found with the body of each girl." Don remarked. "I just don't know what." He gave up his perusal of the books and turned to face April.

"I read that NYU wants to help investigate. They offered to send their forensics department down." April had, indeed heard about the incident over the news, as well as from a few stray figures she'd come across during business hours.

"After the dean insulted the police department?" Donnie scoffed - a trait that was better left to Raphael. "I don't think that's likely to happen. They're being uncooperative at the moment."

"And nobody has been able to find out what Shakespearean work it is?" April asked, now fully interested in the incoming mystery. Whoever would've used Shakespeare in a clever murder mystery had to of been some sort of psycho. Not only for killing two college-age women, but also for using the most boring playwright of all time, in April's opinion, in their ultimate scheme.

"Both girls were English majors. I think they're putting it off as coincidence." Don moved away from the bookcase.

"But you think there's something more to it?" April began walking aimlessly around the apartment, thinking to herself. She already knew the answer and she was beginning to have a hunch – that this wasn't all there was to it as well.

"I do." He took a seat on the couch.

A thought struck April and she froze in place. Slowly turning her head to look at her friend, she had to ask, "Just how did you get this information?" She already knew the answer to this one as well.

"I uh… took a look at the police department's files." Don answered, bringing a hand up to nervously rub the back of his head.

"Over the net?" April had that all-knowing look on her face. She simply had to ask.

"Yes…" he avoided eye contact.

"So you hacked in?"

"Yes…"

April sighed. She should have known – it was the only way to get the information, after all. "Well, I don't have any works up here. But we can check in the store."

"Thanks April." Don let out a breath of relief and stood from his place, ready to follow April down to the shop to snoop around in her collection of old and dusty books.

* * *

This chapter was a bit of a pain. I knew I had to get Don to do some researching – but I, myself, have no knowledge about computer hacking whatsoever. I can only hope I made it half-way believable.

I realize that Don could simply paste the passage into a search engine and come up with the answer… but that would just be too darn easy. Sometimes I hate the convenience of the internet and what it does to old-fashioned research. It kills it – ruins it. So for our purposes, Donnie is not going to realize he can simply 'google' it. He's going to go to the books to haggle out this problem.

I don't like jumping from scene to scene in one chapter. I know I did it a lot in Capricious… but I'm trying to make it less and less necessary in this story. Hopefully I won't have to up my Ten Days to… Thirteen Days… or something like that.

Love to all.

Ten'ou


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT. I would like to borrow them for a day… but that's not likely to happen. So for now, I'll just content myself with daydreams.

Author's Notes: This takes place after _Capricious_ and _Do you like the color Blue? _This is going to confuse you tremendously if you haven't read them.

As always, comments and reviews shall be read carefully and cherished.

Much thanks goes out to my wonderful friend – KameTerra, who oh-so nicely beta-ed these many chapters for me. Thank you very much.

* * *

Ten Days

Chapter Four – Retch! The Great Brownie Interlude

By R. R. Ten'ou

_Another body was found today, in what appears to be a rampage against college students. 21 year old Cassie Stone, a local in the area, was found at the bottom of a manhole construction site on East Garden. So far there are no witnesses and no arrests have been made. _

_The dean at NYU had this to say:_

_This investigation has to come to an end, and quickly. The families of the deceased will not stand quiet until they have the answers they deserve. The police department in charge of the investigation is not accepting the offered help of NYU. _

_And following, we have a statement given by Mrs. Vera Stone, the mother of the deceased:_

_This is an outrage – truly it is. This could have been stopped at the get-go… but now my baby girl is dead. My baby girl! I'll never have her back again. How many girls are going to have to die until the police department finally accepts help? How many more mothers are going to have to lose their baby girls?_

_And there you have it… _

Raphael turned the television off. "And I could be out there lookin' for clues… doin' something… anything!"

But deep down, he knew he couldn't. Leonardo and Michelangelo had somehow gotten sick from Mike's brownie discovery. For the past day Raphael had been doomed to clean-up duty… which included several trips with a mop, as well as several trips to clean out the newly-designated puke buckets. His brothers – they owed him for this one. _Especially Donnie._

"Leave this matter to Donatello for now, my son. We must look after your brothers who are ill." Master Splinter confirmed the thoughts running through his son's mind.

"Yes, sensei." Raphael sighed, though his features still showed his irritation.

_I could be out searchin' the sewers right about now, lookin' for clues, _Raphael thought to himself. Sure, it would have been dangerous… who knew how many areas the police had set up surveillance in for the time being… but Raphael still felt like he could be doing something more. It should have been him out there, searching for answers – and Don stuck at home dealing with the invalids. He tried his best to keep his temper in check though, as the only communicable person around at the moment who wasn't throwing up every hour was his father; and the old sensei always had a calming effect on Raphael's mood.

"Tell me, how did they come across this sickness, Raphael?" Sensei asked curiously. He'd had his suspicions, but he needed to hear an affirmation from his son. It was somewhat strange that both Leonardo and Michelangelo would come down with an illness so suddenly. After going through their medical guide, the wizened rat had narrowed it down to two sicknesses. Either the boys were down with a stomach virus of some sort (unlikely, since they weren't running a fever) or they had gotten a bad case of food poisoning.

"Some tainted brownies Mikey had hidden in his room." Raphael answered with much disgust, even going as far as to make an ill-looking face. He'd remembered the brownies. He _couldn't_ forget the brownies – what with having seen them (and smelled them) twice in their short lifespan – once when they were initially digested, and once when they were un-merrily regurgitated.

"I see," Sensei replied. "You must call Donatello and make sure he knows of this latest development." He said, referring to the television news report. "Then go and check on your older brother." He sighed. "I will see to Michelangelo." Master Splinter stood from the comforts of the nearby armchair and made his way toward Michelangelo's room.

"Sure." Raphael rose from the couch and moved toward the telephone at the opposite side of the room. Dropping a few quarters into the payphone, he then dialed in the number to April's shop. Nobody answered right away. He listened through the earpiece as each ring went through and started tapping the phone with his finger.

_brriiiiing_

_Any day now…_

_brriiiiing_

_Where are you?_

_brriiiiing_

_Pick up already!_

"Hello?" the distinctly feminine voice of April finally sounded on the other end.

"Hey. You guys been watching the news?" he asked into the receiver while examining the phone cord that was now twisted around his wrist.

"Yeah. We just caught the end of it." She answered slowly, as if she were tired. "You guys coming topside anytime soon?"

"I don't think so. Leo and Mike are sick." He paused for a moment to listen, but no response came. "You guys figure any of this out yet?" he asked, referring to the mystery at hand.

"Not yet." She sighed. "But we've still got many more books to go through." She tried to sound hopeful – but her attempt didn't work.

"Right. I've got to go check on Leo. Make sure he hasn't puked up anything else." No answers there, so he might as well move on and check on his brother. The sooner Leo and Mike were up and about, the sooner he'd be off clean-up duty and the sooner they could get something done.

"Tell them to get better soon." April said after many seconds of silence. She really did sound tired. She'd probably been up all night with Don, doing research. "And you behave." She knew him all too well.

"Yeah. Later." He smirked and hung the phone back onto its cradle.

Obviously Donnie's route wasn't getting anything done. The purple brother had been gone most of the previous day and all of the previous night. Now well into the afternoon hours, Raphael was really feeling anxious.

"Damn it…" Raphael muttered and hit the solid wall beside him. "Damn!"

"Raphael!" the red clad turtle turned quickly to see his father had come into the room and was slowly moving toward the kitchen. "You know better than to use such language in our home." The old rat said sternly.

"Sorry, Father." Raphael quickly collected himself.

"I suggest you go and check on your brother," Sensei spoke.

Without speaking, Raphael turned and walked the distance to Leonardo's doorway. Peering in, he saw his older brother lying in his bed – his eyes wide and staring up at the ceiling in boredom. He'd been confined to the bed against his will by his father earlier that day.

"Hey bro. You feelin' better?" Raphael entered the room and moved to the wall opposite Leonardo.

"Remind me never to take food from Michelangelo again." Leonardo sat up in his bed, but instantly regretted the action as he clutched at his stomach painfully. For the past twenty-four hours he'd been awake, mostly revisiting the contents of his stomach and becoming better acquainted with an old metal bucket. He'd even gone as far as to give the pail a name – Michael, for obvious reasons.

"Kinda hard to… considerin' he's our resident cook and all." Raphael stood hesitantly on the other side of the room, watching Leo's pained look. He was ready at any moment to make a hasty retreat, should his brother start vomiting again. He'd cleaned up enough puke for one night.

"I mean it. Unless I've seen him prepare it, I'm not eating it." The feeling of nausea passed and Leo leaned up against the wall while sitting. His eyes were closed in concentration – as if it were keeping all his will power to keep the nausea down.

Raphael eyed his brother warily and then cracked a smirk. "I think he's feelin' it worse than you are bro."

"Indeed." Master Splinter paused in the doorway, a mop in hand. Both brothers turned to look at their father as he continued to move down the hall towards Michelangelo's room.

"Who keeps week-old brownies in a drawer – in the sewer… and expects them to be edible?" Leo removed the blankets from his lower half, and moved on his bed to sit Indian-style.

Raphael slumped down against the wall and answered: "Mikey."

"Point taken." Leo brought a hand up and rubbed at the space between his eyes. "At least I can't say it was a practical joke. He ate a few as well."

"And that's why he's feelin' it worse than you are." Raphael chuckled a bit, his earlier frustration dissipating.

"Donnie already leave?" Leo asked, his eyes widening just a fraction as they came to rest upon his brother.

Raphael looked confused for a moment. Obviously Leo didn't know. "Left last night… you were just too sick to notice."

"We should be up there helping him." Leonardo sighed dejectedly.

Suddenly Raphael knew that he wasn't alone in his feeling of uselessness. Leonardo probably wanted to be topside as much as he did, if not more. He'd assumed that he was the only one of his brothers (given that the other two were sick) that wanted to go out and find something – possibly something that Donnie was overlooking in his search.

With that realization, Raphael pushed back the urge he'd been feeling all day to break through the doors, out into the sewers and do whatever he wanted. To know that Leonardo – and possibly Michelangelo as well – were feeling just as antsy cooped up in the lair all day… it calmed him. He supposed part of the tension he'd been experiencing came from the fact that he was the only brother who felt like he could be doing something more.

And he knew keeping Leo and Mike in bed and resting, was the most important task at hand. _Let Donnie do his bookwork. As soon as these two quit pukin' all over the place, we'll be up and at it in no time. _

"Do you think Master Splinter would consider letting us go topside? I haven't chucked anything in nearly two hours." Leonardo asked in all seriousness.

Raph gave him a look that point-blank asked: _are you stupid? _"What do you think? 'Sides, I ain't goin' through no 'ye olde' plays. That ain't my style." He looked at his brother for a moment. "Look… as soon as you're rested up… and able to keep somethin' down in that stomach of yours, we'll go out and do some searchin'."

"But this would be over with a lot faster if Don had some help!"

"Yeah. Like you were helpin' yesterday?"

"I was… until Mikey fed me germ-infested confectionaries."

"No you weren't."

"Leonardo." Their father reappeared in the doorway, this time without the mop. "Your brother is correct. Perhaps for now we should rely on Donatello and his expertise in such matters."

"But Master… Don's an engineer – not a literary scholar." Leo rationalized aloud.

"Indeed. But it is also his engineering capabilities that give Donatello a highly investigative mind." Sensei explained.

"I'd like to think we all have that." Leo replied glumly.

The old rat smiled. "You are correct, my son. However, there is one difference between you and your brother."

"Yeah. Donnie ain't puking his guts out." Raphael joked.

"Funny." Leo remarked dryly.

"But very true." Their father smiled.

* * *

First off – I have to apologize to all you reading on FF. I've changed the genre categories listed here, as well as the summary for the story. I had it listed under mystery/crime… but that wouldn't be going along with my general intent.

The problem is – there's no genre for documentary here, and that's the feel I'm going for with this story. There's going to be a lot of random "Why did I need to see this scene?" feeling here. It's all about a series of events that takes place over the course of ten days; thus the title.

On a brighter note: Finals are over, so hopefully I'll be able to update more often. I've got three more chapters to write (yes… I'm behind on posting) and a quite a few more to revise once they get back from the beta. But I'm hoping to get it all done and over with before New Years.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT. I would like to borrow them for a day… but that's not likely to happen. So for now, I'll just content myself with daydreams.

Author's Notes: **This takes place after _Capricious_ and **_**Do you like the color Blue?** _This is going to confuse you tremendously if you haven't read them.

As always, comments and reviews shall be read carefully and cherished.

Much thanks goes out to my wonderful friend – KameTerra, who oh-so nicely beta-ed these many chapters for me. Thank you very much.

Lots of thanks goes out to my two friendly reviewers - Larissa and DbKiT. I know it sounds corny, but you guys keep me writing. I truly appreciate all the awesome reviews, and simply that you've stuck with me this long.

* * *

Ten Days

Chapter Five – Success! Answers through the internet

By R. R. Ten'ou

Casey ran a hand through his hair and shuffled through a few more pages of the ancient-looking book in his lap. The book was dusty, filthy, smelled like old mold… and worst of all – it was Shakespeare. The last time he'd seen anything remotely Shakespearean had been quite a while ago – in high school. He hadn't understood it back then, and he sure as hell didn't understand it now. "I don't get this mess."

"The murder? Or Shakespeare?" April asked and rubbed at her nose, which was fast becoming raw from the intake of dust and allergens.

Casey, April, and Donatello were seated about the back part of the shop, on the floor, with a pile of old books scattered around them. They'd been at it for hours now – going through every book as many times as their eyes could stand. The crumpled up pieces of paper with the two passages on them were quickly getting worn as they were passed about between the three researching friends.

Casey thought about her question for a long time before delivering an answer. "Both, if you want to get technical about it. But Shakespeare less."

"You and me both." Don answered with mutual disdain. The legendary writer was not making a friend in Donatello.

"Oh, come on guys." April closed her most recent book and replaced it on the pile before her in favor of another. "Although I don't particularly like this stuff, it's easy to understand."

"For you maybe." Don sighed and opened yet another book. It was a wonder they'd been able to find so many Shakespearean works in the shop. April had said before that she'd never been a fan. Yet they'd been able to find several antique reprints of Shakespeare's folios from the late nineteenth century.

"You don't have to understand it to search for a few passages." April reasoned as she picked up one of the two passages and carefully read over it for the umpteenth time.

"No. But it sure makes for a nasty headache." Casey rubbed his head again. "Why am I doing this anyway? It ain't my thing."

"To help out a friend." April answered. "Now read."

The door to the shop, inconveniently left unlocked, opened and the two humans froze as they listened to the jingle of the bell above it. Who had forgotten to lock it? They expected that any second, a simple shopper would walk into the shop to find them seated in a mess of books with a funny looking green man between them.

Donatello!

April and Casey silently noticed that their green friend had suddenly disappeared without a trace. They looked back at one another with a look that spoke in volumes: _you think we'd be used to this by now._

When they looked back up, the alarm faded from their features at the sight of a familiar face and wavy blonde hair.

"Hey guys." Moose waved with one hand as she closed the door behind her with the other. She walked farther in and set her oversized purse on the counter by the register. "Am I interrupting something?" The sight of April and Casey on the floor with all the old books spread out before them was quite unusual.

"Nothing really." Donatello reappeared as quickly as he had disappeared.

"Hey kid. You get your cousin moved in alright?" Casey asked.

"Yup. And you're not kidding when you said "you"." Moose rolled her eyes and took a few steps closer, coming to rest before them with a hand on her hip.

"What's that mean?" both April and Casey looked to Moose in confusion. Don's eyes remained glued to the book in his hands.

"I guess it slipped my mind that she's got a bum leg. I had to move everything in myself." Moose plopped herself onto the floor between Casey and a pile of books.

"You should have called. We would've been more than happy to help." April chatted, subconsciously happy to peer away from the text on her lap.

"Yeah, 'sides… shop is closed for the next few days." Casey fully removed the book from where it rested on his leg. He closed it and put it away without further glance.

"It is?" Moose arched an eyebrow in surprise and leaned back on one arm. She looked up at the window just behind the bookcase. She had to arch her neck quite a ways, but sure enough, the closed sign hung in the window by the door.

"I left a message on your machine. You didn't get it?" April asked.

"Nope," Moose answered. "The cousin has been hooked in to dial-up for the past day and a half. What're we closed for?" So what if she'd come all this way for nothing. At least she'd be able to socialize for a bit.

"Don is doing some research." April answered simply.

"I'm trying to solve a Shakespearean mystery." Don elaborated, his eyes still on book before him.

"Sounds fun." Moose replied dryly. Everyone in the room sighed at her comment – as if she had no idea just how much _fun_ it really was.

"Really, we're just searching for a couple of passages right now." April continued on.

"Can't find 'em?"

"No." April gestured with her hands at all the books laid out around them. Some were piled up in stacks, some were closed, some were open – but not a one looked remotely like every other. "And we've gone through just about every play, poem, and sonnet you can think of."

"Twice." Casey snorted.

Moose thought to herself for a moment. A contemplating look graced her figures and she brought her index finger up to rest on her chin. Looking straight ahead, she addressed Donatello. "You should talk to Rian."

"What?" he looked up from the book he'd been previously preoccupied with.

"My cousin – just moved in." Moose explained. "She's all up into that literary junk. Just moved up here to get a book published and all that…"

Don looked at Moose for a moment. He was seriously considering it. The books were of no use to him… and it didn't look like he'd be finding the answers he'd hoped for any time soon. Maybe the answers did lie in a something as simple as a phone call. "It's worth a try," he shrugged.

"Great… I'll just call." Moose got up off the floor and made her way over to the counter, where the phone lay in waiting. She picked up the receiver and turned the wheel on the old dial-contraption. Everyone waited patiently for Moose to begin talking to her cousin on the other side. One, two, three rings went by and her answering service finally picked up. "Crap. She must be online again."

"It was worth a try," April said, repeating Don's earlier thought.

"Wait…" Moose's features took on a thoughtful appearance once more. "You got a computer?" she asked, her eyebrows raised in question.

"Of course." April cocked her head to one side and peered up at Moose in confusion.

"Internet access?" Moose asked.

"Yes… Oh! I see…" April quickly got up and placed the book on top of a nearby stack of books. She exited the shop via the stairs to the apartment entrance. Don and Casey watched on in silence as April returned moments later with her laptop computer. She set it up atop the counter next to the phone.

"Just gotta turn it on…" April pressed the button on the top and turned the portable computer towards Moose.

The younger girl managed another thoughtful look before turning to Donatello. "You're all set up. She's online now. Screen-name is RNadel."

Donatello smiled in response. He realized exactly what was going on and got up from his place on the floor, taking the two passages with him. He crossed the room, careful to stay low near the window, and came to the counter. "Thanks Moose. You sure she won't mind?" he asked before turning to the computer screen.

"Rian? Nah." Moose made a waving gesture with her hand.

"Now we can quit with the books?" Casey asked, still seated on the floor and giving the old books a terrible glare.

"For now." April rolled her eyes.

"What do you need this for anyway?" Moose smoothed out the paper that Don laid out on the counter by the computer.

"You know those murders in the sewers?" he asked.

"Yeah…"

"They're related."

"What?!" Moose didn't quite know what to make of it. But she surmised, she ought not to have been surprised – these guys were always in some sort of trouble.

"You act so shocked." April looked at the short girl strangely. "Two college-age women… found in sewers… dead?"

"Yeah well… you spend two days luggin' heavy boxes and see if your brain still works," Moose said spryly.

April motioned around the shop with a hand. She did, in fact, lug heavy boxes around for a living – and the weight and fragility of antiques proved that enough.

"Yeah… well…" Moose resigned.

"You're sure this is her screen name?" Donatello asked Moose.

"Yes. I'm sure it's her. And no, she won't mind… if she does, I'll have something to say to her later," Moose explained.

"You're not helping," Don sighed and began typing away at the keyboard, signed on the instant messenger, and started his online conversation with Moose's cousin.

_Ninjaneer: Hello? _

_RNadel: Hello. Who is this?_

_Ninjaneer: It's nice to meet you Rian. I'm Moose's friend, Don._

_RNadel: Moose has a friend?_

"Of course I have friends!" Moose countered as she read the screen from the side.

_Ninjaneer: Uh… yes. She told me you might be able to help me with a few literary passages._

_RNadel: Can do, Don. What's the problem?_

_Ninjaneer: I have two excerpts from Shakespeare. The problem is – I can't figure out which works they come from. _

_RNadel: Send 'em my way. We'll see if I know. Through I have to tell ya – Shakespeare isn't my forte. _

" Seems Shakespeare isn't anyone's forte." He said aloud.

"You ain't kidding." he heard Casey across the room.

_Ninjaneer: This Woman whom thou mad'st to be my help,_

_And gav'st me as thy perfect gift, so good,_

_So fit, so acceptable, so Divine,_

_That from her hand I could suspect no ill,_

_And what she did, whatever in itself,_

_Her doing seem'd to justify the deed;_

_But confidence then bore thee on, secure _

_Either to meet no danger, or to finde_

_Matter of glorious trial; and perhaps_

_I also err'd in overmuch admiring_

_What seemd in thee so perfect, that I thought_

_No evil durst attempt thee, but I rue_

_That errour now, which is become my crime,_

_And thou th' accuser. Thus it shall befall_

_Him who to worth in Women overtrusting_

_Lets her Will rule; restraint she will not brook,_

_And left to her self, if evil thence ensue,_

_Shee first his weak indulgence will accuse._

_RNadel: There's your problem!_

_Ninjaneer: What's that?_

_RNadel: That's not by Shakespeare. That's from Milton's Paradise Lost._

_Ninjaneer: Milton's Paradise Lost?_

_RNadel: Yeah. John Milton – famous English writer that came some time after Shakespeare. Wrote Paradise Lost – an epic poem. _

_Ninjaneer: You're sure?_

_RNadel: Absolutely. It's one of my favorites._

_Ninjaneer: Rian, do you think you could explain the gist of it to me?_

_RNadel: Sure thing, Don. Any way you could stop by? Paradise Lost is a bit complex._

"How you gonna pull this off, Don?" Moose asked curiously.

_Ninjaneer: No. I'm out of town for the moment… but I really need to get this done._

"That's how," Don replied.

"Oh. That's smart," said Moose.

_RNadel: Gotcha. You got a phone?_

_Ninjaneer: Yes._

_RNadel: Awesome. I'm assuming you've got the number from Moose. Call anytime. _

_Ninjaneer: Thanks Rian._

"Well… that was easy enough…" Don looked highly optimistic. In truth, he was glad to have gotten somewhere in the course of the mystery. Now it was on its way to being solved. "April… could you do me a favor?"

"Sure Don. Name it." April was just as happy – though secretly it was more due to the fact that they wouldn't be going through any more of those dust-filled volumes. _But they will have to be cleaned up…_ she frowned for a moment. _Eh, I'll make Casey do it. _

"There's a bookstore around the corner, right?" Donatello asked as he gathered up his notes and the two passages.

"There is."

"I'm going to need a copy of Paradise Lost."

* * *

I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. I needed something to brighten my day – and it seems posting up a new chapter was just it. I had two teeth pulled today… and it was not fun. Despite the pain, and the new oddness of having two missing teeth, I shall try to update more often before the holiday season. Though posting-wise I'm only on chapter five, I just finished writing chapter eight, so there's only two more to go. 


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT. I would like to borrow them for a day… but that's not likely to happen. So for now, I'll just content myself with daydreams.

Author's Notes: **This takes place after _Capricious_ and **_**Do you like the color Blue?** _This is going to confuse you tremendously if you haven't read them.

As always, comments and reviews shall be read carefully and cherished.

Much thanks goes out to my wonderful friend – KameTerra, who oh-so nicely beta-ed these many chapters for me. Thank you very much.

* * *

Ten Days

Chapter Six – Rules! Rian is most definitely a girl

By R. R. Ten'ou

The snow had long since melted from the downfall earlier that week and the grounds were slick with the remnants of it. February in New York was cold, sure enough – but not cold enough to hold the wintry landscape. Ice that hung like draped crystals sparkled with condensation on the fire-escape landings. The landings would have been near impossible to cling to on such a dark and chilly night.

The night was silent. A heavy sigh of fog went unnoticed – yet seemed to loom around every corner.

The streets were empty. The usual hustle and bustle had been exchanged for the safety and comfort of four walls and a ceiling and perhaps a heater - if one was lucky.

A nearby plaza clock began its hourly toll.

…and a man in black went flying through the air, only to come crashing down on a neatly lined row of garbage cans – their contents strewn out in the alleyway.

Casey Jones landed on the ground from above – his shoes hitting the pavement with a klunk. He paused for a moment, crouched down and with a broad smile across his features, as if he were having too much fun. His eyes closed for a moment. He took in a long breath and let it out all at once.

"Good work there, trusty sidekick." Casey stood to full height and turned to peer into the darkness at the friend he knew was there.

"You're the sidekick." Raphael slowly stepped out of the shadows – an amused glint in his eyes.

"Nah. Can't be." Casey went to where the black-clad man lay surrounded by garbage and rotten food. From the smell, it was less than a miracle that the stray cats hadn't been all over the cans by now.

"Why not?" Raph peered to the entrance of the alley. Nobody was there so the pair was safe for the moment.

"Official rules." Casey stopped to look at his friend. "You can't be a sidekick if you've ever had a sidekick of your own." He attempted to explain. "Do you think he's dead?" Casey tapped the man with the toe of his shoe repeatedly.

Raph rolled his eyes in the dim lighting. "Stop tryin' ta scare him. He's unconscious." He leapt up onto one of the fire escape landings, carefully though because of the thawing ice.

"Worth a try." Casey shrugged and followed. "You think we should leave him here?" he gestured back to the man on the ground.

"Why not? We left his buddies a few blocks over." Raph looked down at his following friend with a brow ridge raised.

"Point taken." Casey said simply.

The pair quickly climbed up the outskirts of the fire-escape system, careful to stay clear of windows and keeping close to the darkest of shadows. Though Casey was by no means a ninja, he knew the drill. Soon they came to the top of the building, Casey lagging behind just a bit.

From there it was just building to building – jumping the rooftops that were closest until they made it to their unspoken destination – the building above the store, where Casey lived with April.

Raphael had gone investigating earlier that night through the sewers. He'd finally been let out of the house, once his brothers had stopped retching and had gotten themselves a few measly hours of sleep. His brief friendship with the cleaning supplies was over and for that he was grateful. The familiar antsy pang he'd felt the day before had come back with a vengeance and so, with permission from his father, and strict orders to be on guard, Raphael left for the sewer that extended beyond their home…

…and found nothing.

The police had done an immaculate job confiscating any and all clues that were once on the crime scenes. There was nothing left for Raphael to find – as far as he could tell. For once the department had done something right in their assessment of the cases. It was no help at all to Raphael, though.

After investigating all three crime scenes, Raphael went topside and found Casey. Raph's expedition to vent his frustrations had led them to take out a couple dozen street thugs or so… the last set of which contained a runner; but they'd quickly taken care of him.

Raphael arrived at their target place ahead of Casey and waited the few moments before his friend arrived atop the building.

"When did you ever have a sidekick?" Raphael asked as Casey made it over the ledge.

Casey didn't answer right away, but instead slid down against the ledge and sat on the cold building roof. "Remember? Cute little blonde girl, about yea high?" he held his arm up as high as it would go – though it was still a tad short, even for Moose-height.

"The kid doesn't count." Raph countered. He crossed the rooftop and peered over the edge on the opposite side.

"Oh, she counts. Got into about as much trouble as any other sidekick," Casey reasoned like he was complaining. He noticed a small pile of pebbles and rocks on the rooftop beside him.

"What's your point?" Raphael looked over his shoulder at his friend.

"Only that I've had a sidekick before, and as per the official rules, I cannot be eligible for sidekick-dom." Casey took making up his own rules to a new and ridiculous level. Still – it was a source of snarky banter.

"Official rules… my ass." Raph responded. He was used to Casey's bullshit – he'd be the type to try and convince someone that pineapples grew on pine trees just for the hell of it.

"Watch it. You don't mess with the rules. It's just not how things work." Casey warned him.

"That's the biggest load of crap you've come up with yet." Raphael almost laughed – almost. Casey had used the same argument last week when he'd tried to convince Mikey that smart people don't get brain-freezes when they eat ice-cream too fast. Needless to say, both Casey and Mikey ended up with terrible ice-cream headaches before the night was over.

"Sounded good though, didn't it? Besides – you owe me." Casey laughed loudly and took to throwing the rocks piled beside him at the opposite ledge.

"Owe you nothin'." Raph crossed the rooftop once more and sat down a ways away from Casey. This was how their nightly strolls in the city, complete with bad-guy ass-kicking, usually ended – on a high note and full of witty remarks – though neither would ever comment on it.

"Seriously. Do you know what I spent the past day doin?" Casey rubbed imaginary dust out of his eyes at the memory.

"You know what _I_ spent the past two days doin?" Raph's tone seemed to say: _you don't want to go there._ The past night came back vividly in his mind – episodes of mops and buckets and very foul smelling Leonardo breath. Mike hadn't been much better.

"I've spent the past day, and two nights, pourin' over some dead guy's ancient plays. Shoulda been you."

"Why's that?" Raphael was intrigued. Surely going through old books had to have been far more bearable than what he'd been forced to clean up.

"Don's _your_ brother." Casey explained. It was perfect logic – at least to him.

"I've spent the past two days cleanin' up Leo and Mikey puke."

Casey sighed in defeat and brought his arms above his head in a stretch, "Alright."

"Alright, what?" Raphael looked back at Casey.

"You got me beat." Casey stood up from his seated position and kicked the rest of the rocks, sending them sprawling across the rooftop.

"Thought so." Raphael smirked.

"Later, Raph." Casey turned back for a moment and offered half a wave to his friend.

"Later." Raph watched as Casey leapt over the side of the building and onto the single fire-escape ramp that led down to the window. He didn't move from the spot where he sat, but instead stared out into the darkness of the city.

That is – until his shell cell started ringing.

"Whaddya want Leo?" he said into the phone – not even bothering to say hello. He knew who it was, so why bother with formalities?

"_Piper just called and said she left some stuff for us out on the fire exit." _Leo's voice came over the phone as expected – though the message was surprising. He hadn't been expecting that and silently wondered if Leo knew what he sounded like… requesting something like that. Maybe he was still sick?

"Haven't you had enough sweets for one week?"

"_Look… I'd go and get it myself – but Sensei won't let me leave."_

"Since you still can't keep anything down."

"_Don't remind me. Can you just swing by and pick it up? I don't want her to think…"_

"…that you don't like her anymore?"

"_Raph. Will you let me finish?" _Leo snapped_, "I don't want her to think we're rude."_

"Yeah, yeah. I'll do it." Raphael rolled his eyes and ran a hand over the back of his head.

He heard Leo sigh on the other end. _"Thanks. And remember – you can't…"_

"…I can't go in cuz of the cousin. I know, already!" Raphael finished for him.

"_Just be careful." _Leo's fearless tone came over the phone.

Raphael ended the call without responding and leapt over the building ledge, to the next building over and out of sight.

It was a short trip to Moose's apartment.

The alleyway her fire-escape was located within was always empty. Lights were continuously on in the building, making it hard for anybody on the inside to see outside. Shadows played on the alleyway environment, dancing in the moonlight upon railings, building edges, and garbage cans.

He jumped down the fire-escape landings one by one from the top of the building until he came to the one he knew corresponded to Moose's apartment window. Although he didn't visit quite as often as certain brothers of his, he still knew the location very well. It'd only taken a single trip to her apartment – that night he and his brothers had brought Candon back unconscious – to memorize the area. Being ninja definitely had its advantages.

He saw Moose stand up from the computer chair and reach around the edge of the desk for something. Narrowing his eyes, Raphael noticed the object was a cane and Moose was now leaning on it. Since when had Moose gotten a cane? Better yet – when had Moose gotten herself injured enough to use one? Raphael pondered the situation a few moments. How would Moose have gotten hurt without either Casey or Leonardo finding out?

His attention went back to the hobbling Moose. Her back was turned to him as she limped to the bar in pursuit of something, he didn't know what.

_But Moose isn't quite that short, is she?_ The girl was indeed short – maybe a few inches shorter than Moose – if anybody could be. Her hair wasn't quite as blonde as Moose's either… it looked more of an orangey color – if that color was at all possible.

Yet still – she resembled Moose uncannily. It was almost as if the two were related.

Realization dawned upon him.

This wasn't Moose at all.

_Rian's a girl._

They had all assumed Rian to be a guy – simply from her name. It was a boy's name, after all. They'd never questioned Moose, and the topic of gender had never come up. He'd always pictured Rian to be another Candon – another guy sent to watch over Moose and make sure she didn't get into anymore trouble. This girl – this Rian, however was just the opposite. With her obviously faulty leg, it looked more like Moose would be taking care of _her_.

Still staring, he re-noted the similarities between the two cousins as Rian turned around and brought up what he then recognized as a book. She did look a lot like Moose – yet now that he knew she wasn't Moose, he could see the distinct dissimilarities.

Moose walked with a bounce that was not too different than Michelangelo. Rian moved in a boxy manner – partly due to her injury. Though she was injured, she moved around a lot. Standing in one place with the book open in her hand, and quietly talking to herself, she leaned back and forth, shifting her weight from one leg to the other. She brought her cane up and shook it in the air, as if she were talking to someone who wasn't there as she came to rest on her good leg once more.

Moose had a bright, wide smile. Rian, from what he was currently witnessing, had more of a quirky little grin. She smiled as her cane waved in the air and she continued talking to herself.

Her leg injury was hidden well under her blue jeans and aside from the limp and the cane, she looked relatively normal – despite the fact that she was having a very animated conversation with herself. Raphael wished she was talking just a bit louder, so he might be able to understand what she was saying. Reading her lips might have been an option… but hard to do with her ceaseless laughter.

She was amusing – to say the least. Watching her smile and carry on in a giddy sort of way caused Raphael to smile. It was a small smile, but with every moment spent watching, it grew in volumes.

For the first time that evening, he forgot all about the murders in the sewers – the mystery that plagued his home. Instead, he watched Rian through the window with growing captivation.

It was like watching a television show and knowing you'd never get a chance to meet the characters. Raphael knew he would never be able to meet her, even if she was Moose's cousin. The fewer people that knew about him and his brothers, the better off they would be. Keeping this in mind, Raphael continued watching the peculiar woman in the apartment with a hidden fondness.

Before he knew it, Rian turned to the window, peering up from the book she stood with.

Their eyes locked for a mere fraction of a second.

…and then he disappeared.

"Too bad the rules say I can't know you," Raphael said softly as he climbed over the rooftop ledge and into the night.

* * *

I am on top of the world tonight. Just before I posted this up, I completed the initial writing of chapter nine and sent it to Kame-chan for editing. She always does such a wonderful job. I'm one of the only people in the world that likes to get my chapters back full of mark-ups and edits.

Expect more updates... though I may have told you that in the last chapter. I want to get this story up and done by Christmas - hopefully. Oh! And if you haven't checked out my Author's Forum on Stealthy Stories, do so! I have some good pictures of Moose drawn by a friend of mine posted there.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT. I would like to borrow them for a day… but that's not likely to happen. So for now, I'll just content myself with daydreams.

Author's Notes: **This takes place after _Capricious_ and **_**Do you like the color Blue?** _This is going to confuse you tremendously if you haven't read them.

As always, comments and reviews shall be read carefully and cherished.

Much thanks goes out to my wonderful friend – KameTerra, who oh-so nicely beta-ed these many chapters for me. Thank you very much.

* * *

Ten Days

Chapter Seven – Solved! The brothers find a suspect

By R. R. Ten'ou

"Just a second guys," Donatello spoke as his three brothers entered the room.

Donnie sat in his desk chair, beaming at the computer screen before him. His brothers stood around him – Raphael to his right, Michelangelo to his left, and Leonardo directly behind. The three were waiting patiently for their brother to begin his explanation. This was the second they'd all counted down to since the moment they'd seen the covered corpse of the first victim that late night in the sewers.

"Alright! Thank you Rian!" Donnie spoke aloud, as he typed the very same message into the computer. The message box from the instant messaging service replied seconds later with a simple smiley face.

He'd returned home right after he'd convinced April to find him a copy of Paradise Lost at the local bookstore two days ago. Since then he'd holed himself up in his room – straying out only for bathroom breaks and the occasional snack. The computer screen and the paperback edition of the epic poem seemed to be glued to Don at all times. His brothers had learned from the other day to leave Donnie alone while he was researching. The answers came a lot quicker if they left him to it.

This day, though – this day was special. This day Don and Rian, through internet correspondence, had been able to crack a theory about the deaths of the three girls. He'd found it hard trying to pull some semblance of a theory out of Rian without dishing out the entire tale – sans the parts about him being a mutant turtle and living in the sewers with his three mutant brothers and father. So far Rian only knew the basics – that Don was unable to see her in person, and he'd been intrigued by the mystery and wanted to solve it himself. That was the truth, right?

Initially Rian had surprised him. She'd been just as intrigued about the murders as he was. She didn't question where he got his information, but simply took what little clues he gave her and ran with them.

So this day Donatello called his brothers into his computer sanctuary with every intention of telling them about his – _their_ findings.

"Who's Rian?" Michelangelo asked curiously and slung an arm over Donatello's shoulder. Since when had Donnie started hanging around English Literature forums for fun?

Leonardo picked up the copy of Paradise Lost lying on Don's desk and began leafing through it. "He's Moose's cousin, remember?" he informed his youngest brother. Don quickly snatched the book back – if only to make sure none of the sticky notes he'd placed between the pages were still there.

"_She_." Raphael corrected.

"_She_?" Michelangelo was intrigued – after all, Rian was a boy's name. He took a step back and relinquished his hold of Donnie's shoulder. Mikey peered over at Raphael, who was in a trance with the computer screen, it seemed.

"_She_ is Moose's cousin?" Leonardo asked, while attempting to read the instant messaging window on the computer screen.

"Rian's a girl?" Michelangelo asked again. His eyes widened and he stared into the computer screen as if he could discern the validity of Don's statement just by peering at the glowing monitor.

"Yup." Raphael ceased his staring match with the computer screen. He turned and backed against the wall next to Don's computer and crossed his arms before him. He closed his eyes in boredom as the back of his head came in contact with the wall and a soft _thud_ followed.

"Right. So, I've been getting help from Moose's cousin, Rian… who incidentally is a girl…" Don reiterated the points – just to be sure that all were covered. "Need I repeat anymore?"

"You've been talking to Moose's cousin?" Raph's eyes snapped open and he turned sharply to glare at his purple banded brother. If _he_ couldn't talk to her, what made it suddenly alright for Donnie to be able to talk to her? He'd been warned to keep his distance and did so, despite the fact that he'd been intrigued by her.

"I thought we'd already established that…" Donnie stated slowly, one brow ridge raised as he turned slightly in his chair to face Raphael. He silently wondered just how many more times he was going to have to repeat the already known facts just to appease his brothers, who were quite obviously not taking the particulars in well.

Raphael stepped away from the wall. "How is it that you've been talking to her? I thought we were supposed to remain secret?" he pointed angrily at Don. He'd wanted to talk to her… really _wanted_ to. But he didn't – simply because it was against the rules they'd set.

"Online." Don answered simply and reached out to swat Raphael's pointing hand back away.

"Online?" Raphael repeated with slight distrust. Raphael _liked_ her – and Donnie was the one who got to talk to her. It wasn't fair.

"Yes. Online. And over the phone." Don still spoke slowly. He wondered what could have possibly come over his brother. "Moose hooked us up," he further explained. Donnie's face still held an expression of puzzlement. He wasn't angry at Raph's outburst; he was just confused.

"Hooked you up? What the shell is that supposed ta mean?" Raphael took a step forward until he was face to face with Donatello. Leonardo and Michelangelo stood back, watching the scene before them perplexedly. It wasn't often Raph became irritated with Donnie because of something he said. The other brothers were trying to make sense of it all.

"I mean that Moose passed me her user name." Donnie sighed in frustration and looked away from his angry brother. At this rate he'd never be able to explain his findings.

"And you've been chattin' her up all this time?" Raphael asked. Even if Don hadn't been speaking to her in person – it was still unfair in Raph's mind.

"Chatting her up? Whoa! Hold on. I've simply been doing research with her help… and _chatting her up_? What is that supposed to mean anyway?" Where had that come from? Don, Leo, and Mike looked intently at Raphael – as if he'd gone mad.

"You said Moose hooked you two up." Raphael stated, defending his earlier words.

And suddenly it all clicked for Don; he understood it now. This whole conversation had been because Don had been talking to Rian online… which Raphael quite obviously had a problem with… "I only meant that Moose allowed me to know the user name of her cousin… who it seems is a bit of an aficionado of English Literature. She's been helping me do my research." He sighed, yet couldn't help but give a small smile.

"Oh." Raphael backed down. He took a step back and brought a hand up to his opposite arm – not sure what to do, he felt unusually awkward and embarrassed.

"Oh? What did you think was going on?" Don rested his head on his hand, propped up on his desk. He looked inquisitively at his red banded brother, to put all the attention on an obviously awkward Raphael.

Mikey started sniggering in the background, desperately trying to hold in any laughter until the appropriate time – which he knew was sure to be any moment now. Seeing his brothers bicker over something so ridiculous – he silently wondered if any of them knew just how silly they sounded. Michelangelo glanced to his right and shared a look with Leonardo.

Raph stepped back and cast his glance away from his brothers. "I thought… nothin'."

"He's got that right." Mikey laughed, breaking the tension that filled the air around them. This was the appropriate moment he'd been looking for. "He thought nothing…" Mike doubled over and slapped his knee for added effect.

"Shuddup Mikey." Raph spoke – his gaze still shifted to the side, and away from his brothers.

"You knew Rian was a girl. You've seen her." Leonardo spoke up. He leaned forward on the back of Don's chair, putting the conversation together piece by piece.

"Yeah. So?" Raph mumbled. His eyes darted quickly from side to side, like a cornered animal.

"You have a bit of a crush, don't you." Donatello smirked in delight as he pointed at his brother.

"What? No!" Raphael's eyes, widened in shock, shot back to his brother in a bout of exclamation. He smacked Don's hand away as Don had done previously to him.

Donatello let out a small chuckle. "Don't worry Raph. I'm not stealing your girl." He was enjoying this all too much.

"I never… grrr… I'm gonna kill you Donnie." Raphael spoke flatly and his once widened eyes narrowed in warning. Of course he wasn't really going to kill his brother – but if he managed to hurt him, if only a little, then all the better.

"Lay off it Raph. What did you find out, Don?" Leonardo cut through the running silence. It was time to get back to what was important – they had an semi-solved mystery to listen to.

"I found out that not only is the quote not Shakespeare… but it seems that all three girls were taking a class based on the real author of the excerpts – John Milton. The excerpts are from an epic poem called Paradise Lost."

"What does that mean?" Mike had ceased his laughter and was unusually focused on the subject at hand.

"Paradise Lost is the story of the creation of Adam and Eve, from Christian tradition." Donatello explained, holding the book up for added effect.

"Great. So we've got a religious nutcase on our hands?" Raphael asked.

"I… er… _we_ don't think so." Don turned back to his computer and maximized the instant message window. He scrolled back up to stop on what he thought was a key point in his conversation with Rian.

"What do you mean Don? You just said that the poem is about -" Leonardo started.

"Let me explain." Don cut him off. "There's a lot of tension and arguments over the role of Eve in Paradise Lost. Some people accuse Milton of being a misogynist. Others claim he's a feminist." Don pointed to the points in the conversation on the computer screen where he and Rian had established these thoughts.

"So you think that whoever is killing these girls is some sort of misogynist?" While he spoke, Leonardo read over the parts of the conversation that Don had referenced to.

"What's a misogynist?" Michelangelo asked curiously. It wasn't a stupid question by any means.

"A man who hates women – or rather, who hates women that hold any sort of power or intelligence." Donatello explained to his youngest brother, who in turn nodded.

"That makes sense…" Leonardo stated. After all – the victims were female college students enrolled in the English department. They were at school to develop a deep knowledge of their selected subject.

"Whoever is killing these girls not only has a strong dislike for women with intelligence – but specifically intelligence in literature," Don went on.

"So, have you determined who it is?" Leonardo backed away from the computer monitor and looked intently at his scholarly brother.

"Still no clues." Don sighed. "The teacher of the course is a woman… who seems to have a background in the feminist movement."

"Uh huh." A thought came to Leo. "And who did she replace?"

Donatello looked up at his eldest brother for a moment with confusion. It didn't last long, as that all too familiar look of clarity came washing over his features. "You know Leo… you might be on to something."

"That'd be a first." Raphael sneered good naturedly, attempting to ease into an atmosphere in which the previous uncomfortable conversation had not occurred.

"You're just mad cause Donnie stole your girlfriend." Mike countered.

"Shut it Mikey." Raph warned.

* * *

Here you go! Two chapters back to back. Nine has been written, and needs to be edited.

Now if only I could finish this drackin' last chapter…


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT. I would like to borrow them for a day… but that's not likely to happen. So for now, I'll just content myself with daydreams.

Author's Notes: **This takes place after _Capricious_ and **_**Do you like the color Blue?** _This is going to confuse you tremendously if you haven't read them.

As always, comments and reviews shall be read carefully and cherished.

Much thanks goes out to my wonderful friend – KameTerra, who oh-so nicely beta-ed these many chapters for me. Thank you very much.

* * *

Ten Days

Chapter Eight – Plan! Moose goes undercover

By R. R. Ten'ou

"Tell me what we're doing here again." Raphael rested his head on his hand, leaning over the ledge of the rooftop and peering down at the street below. Contrary to the past few nights, this night was filled with the laughter and speech of people. Down on the street people were passing by in groups and most of them were filing into the same worn-out building. He and his brothers sat against the rooftop ledge in what was a very well shadowed hiding place.

"Dude, we're totally on a stakeout." As he spoke, Michelangelo grasped his aforementioned brother by the shoulders and shook him. Mike ceased, but not without a laugh, as Raphael reached back to hit the youngest brother.

"Rian and I did a background check on that professor," Donatello, to the left of Raphael, explained while looking through a pair of homemade binoculars. He was facing the street, peering over the ledge, but trying to remain hidden at the same time. "Seems he was let go because of an affair he was having with a student. He and his student love broke it off after he was sacked… so we suspect he has a grudge against female students in the English program." He passed the binoculars to Leonardo.

"And that's got to do with us here, how?" Raphael let his head fall to the concrete top of the ledge, his arms hanging over the side in front of him.

"The professor has been lecturing in this coffee shop lately… since his termination." Leonardo answered as he scanned the area diligently with the binoculars. Unlike his brothers, who were simply slumped against the side of the ledge, Leonardo was crouched down, ready to move at a moments notice.

"And you think this is where he finds his victims?" Raph looked past Donatello, to Leonardo, with a questioning glance.

Leonardo passed the binoculars back to Don. "If he is the killer… Yes."

"Alright, I'm game." Raphael snatched the binoculars out of Don's hands, consequently hitting Don in the face.

"Watch what you're doing with those." Don mumbled and rubbed at the area between his eyes where he had been hit.

Raphael didn't comment on his brother's less than serious injury. Instead, he peered through the binoculars at the street below. His brothers noticed when Raph narrowed his eyes a bit in concentration. "Is that Moose?"

"Moose?" Don quickly took the binoculars back. Secretly he hoped he would end up hitting Raph, but no such luck.

Raphael pointed to the street below. "There! That _is_ Moose!"

"Where?" Leonardo grabbed at the binoculars, coincidentally and very much accidentally hitting Don in the face.

"Over there! She's going in!" Raph pointed and everybody looked, those without binoculars having to squint. Surely enough, just to the side of the coffee house building entrance stood the short, blonde girl, waiting in line for her turn to go in.

"What? Is she like undercover?" Michelangelo, hoping to get a turn with the binoculars, moved to crouch down between Don and Leo, though there wasn't much room.

"I think so." Leo answered simply.

"Well, she does fit the part – college age female," Donatello surmised as he rubbed again at his injured face.

"Not the point. This is dangerous." Leo spoke quickly and seriously. Months ago Moose had made a promise of sorts, to leave the dangerous stuff to those who could handle it. He didn't know what he would do if she was trying to break that promise now. Moreover, he'd made a promise to protect her… and this wasn't exactly what he'd meant by it.

"How'd she find out about this?" Raphael himself hadn't known where his brothers were ushering him to that night. He'd had plans to do some patrolling, but Leonardo had nixed that idea early on. So if he hadn't known what this was all about… how could Moose have known?

"Rian." Don sighed. He hadn't expected his research partner to pass along the results. It really shouldn't have surprised him – he told his brothers the news, so it was only logical that Rian would tell Moose. If there was one thing Donnie felt was more exciting than the thinking itself, it was sharing his findings with everyone in the nearest vicinity. Evidently Rian felt the same way.

"So we can bet Moose knows everything?" Mikey spoke up as he watched Moose down below with interest. He didn't want anything unfortunate to happen to his new baking buddy. Where else was he going to find an excuse to chow down on sugary treats every Saturday night?

"Most likely," Don answered. Below, Moose had already entered the building and by now it was too late to do anything about it. Even before she'd entered, there wasn't much to do except watch. The four brothers couldn't go down and attempt to thwart her actions because of all the people in the surrounding area, so they were left with no choice but to remain still and act as an audience to the scene before them.

"Like anything's gonna happen in there," Michelangelo stated. Surely nothing would occur inside. There were too many people going in for anything truly harmful to happen to their friend.

"He might. He is a deranged psychopath." Raphael countered. There were a lot of rooms in the small building. She could have been taken into a back closet and bound and gagged for all they knew.

"We don't know that for sure yet." Leonardo stated, referring to the so-called psychopath. They had no idea so far whether the culprit was guilty or innocent of the murders. And Moose was probably perfectly safe, sitting at a café table, sipping hot cocoa at that very moment.

"Yeah…" Mikey added with a bout of optimism. "Watch it turn out to be someone else. That's how it always turns out in those cop dramas nowadays."

"This isn't a TV show. This is dangerous." Leonardo said with concern. Though various thoughts had been thrown around, he could only assume the worst. He stared with much consternation at the coffee shop exit as more and more people entered, silently hoping that at any moment Moose would come to her senses and he'd see her bounce out of the building.

"You worried bro?" Raphael said with a smirk as he looked evilly at his only older brother. Despite the fact that their friend was in potential trouble, it felt good to turn the tables from yesterday's incident, in which his brothers taunted him mercilessly, and tease someone else.

"When an innocent person might be in danger? Yes!" Leo looked at his red banded brother incredulously, as if the answer were absolutely obvious.

"I think it's more than that." Raphael continued smirking and looked back toward the street below.

Leo closed his eyes and sighed in exasperation. "And I think I'm going to pretend you didn't say that."

"Yeah, sides – Moose ain't in danger anymore." Leo's eyes snapped open at Michelangelo's declaration. He looked back to the entrance below and sure enough, Moose was being escorted out by two college-age males. They had her by either arm and she looked to be ranting and raving the entire way.

"Looks like she's bein' kicked out." Raphael stated the obvious. Once the two men reached the sidewalk, they quickly let go of her arms and left her on the pavement. Once their backs were turned Moose signaled the two with a very rude hand gesture.

Why was she being kicked out? Could it have been because she didn't attend the university? That was always a possibility. "But why?" Leo wondered aloud.

"Do I look like a mind-reader to you?" Raphael jested. "Go ask her yourself."

"We can't reveal our position," Leonardo replied. Just like before, when they were worried about her safety, they couldn't go down to question her hasty removal from the coffee shop.

"That's why I always keep one of these handy." Everyone turned to peer at Donatello, who had taken something from the bag conveniently lying at his side. In his hand he held a familiar communication device, and he was waving it slowly before hem.

"Spare shell cell?" Raphael asked.

"In the event that one of ours gets broken," Don explained. The shell cells _did_ get broken – a _lot_. He kept all sorts of things in his brown bag for 'just-in-case' emergencies.

"That's fine and all Don…" Raphael paused to think for a moment as he turned toward his brainy brother. "But how are we gonna contact you if it's broken in the first place?" he asked, indicating that it was a useless thought in case they were ever separated.

"We're all here, aren't we?" Don addressed the obvious.

"Guys? Task at hand," Leo spoke. All four of the ninja turtles up on the rooftop turned once more to gaze at Moose. The blonde girl was in a huff, pacing back and forth down the sidewalk, gesturing wildly with her hands as she went. Given the ever-changing direction in her pace, she wasn't going anywhere for the time being.

"How can we get it to her without being seen?" the ever-inquisitive Donatello asked 'aloud, though it was more for himself than the others. He brought a hand to his head and rubbed it as if the action would aid in his pondering.

"Throw it?" Michelangelo voiced with good intention. He repeatedly made a pitching gesture with his hands while he spoke.

"Don't you think it'd break?" Don ended his movement and turned to peer disbelievingly at his baby brother. "I mean… I did make them to withstand most impact. But from here to the ground? It wouldn't be in working order at the very least."

"Not if you do it _really_ carefully." Mike continued with his throwing gestures.

"Mikey…" Don paused for a moment. "Never mind…" he concluded.

"We could always just beam her in the head with it." Raphael took Mike's idea and ran with it.

"What?..." This time Leo was jerked out of his thoughts. A picture of the cell flying through the air and coming crashing down on poor Moose's head, only to send her onto the pavement unconscious went through his mind. "No!" he rejected the idea quickly.

"You got a better idea, Fearless? Cause she's leaving." Raphael motioned to the blonde girl below. She'd had enough of her angry pacing, calmed down a bit, and was ready to head home.

Leo had to think quickly if he was going to get her attention before she left the area for good. A split second decision was made and he addressed his brothers in a tone that left no room for question. "Give me your masks."

"What?" Raphael had to ask anyway.

"Just do it guys." Leonardo removed his blue mask and his brothers handed him theirs. At a lightning speed, Leonardo began wrapping the masks around the cellular phone.

"Oh! I see." Don brightened considerably in realization.

"What? You gonna wrap it up all nice and pretty for her or something?" Raphael was still clueless as to his brother's intention.

"No. The cushioning provided by the fabric should keep it in one piece _and_ in working condition when it hits the ground." He tied off the last mask around the phone. Given the length of their masks, it offered quite a bit of protection to the cell.

"So we _are_ gonna throw it?" Mikey smiled as he once again made a throwing gesture.

"Yes." Leo nodded to his youngest brother and turned back to the street below. Aiming carefully, he let the phone fly from his grasp and listened for several silent seconds until it hit the ground with a crack near Moose's path.

"Why didn't you say so in the first place?" Raphael mumbled as the phone came in contact with the ground.

They watched from above as Moose picked up the foreign object and carefully turned it over in her hands. She found the knot at the side and deftly untied and unwrapped the item. Recognizing each individual mask as she went, Moose smiled to herself, stories below the four.

Leo took out his own cell and dialed in the signal. At once all the cells went off, including the ones owned by his brothers. The three didn't even reach for theirs – but watched as Moose pressed a single button and brought the phone to her ear.

"Hello?" Leo heard her speak through the cell.

"Piper -" Leonardo started, but was cut off by an over-enthusiastic Moose.

"Leo? Aw cool! This is a shell cell, isn't it?" she rambled through the phone.

"Yes. Listen carefully Moose -" he was once more cut off.

"Does this mean you trust me? This is gonna be so cool! Now I can call whenever I want!"

They were getting nowhere at this point. Donatello made a judgment and snatched the phone away from his brother. He ignored the glare he received from Leonardo. "Moose," he spoke into the phone.

"Oh, hey Don!" Moose tried not to sound as disappointed as she was. The brothers listened as Don held the phone at a distance and turned up the volume so all four could hear.

"Hey… listen and be very quiet." Don spoke slowly. It was odd hearing her voice over the phone and seeing her several stories below at the same time.

"Kay. I'm listening." She chirped.

"You see those rafters up above you?" Don asked and watched as Moose looked up above her.

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Look directly to the left."

She turned to her left. "Is that where you guys are?"

"Yes. Now look back down at the ground."

"Alright." She turned on her heel and faced the opposite direction for good measure.

"I take it you won't be going back in?" Don inquired, though he already knew the answer.

"Not after I got kicked out. And here I wanted to do the whole stakeout thing." Moose admitted to her self-endangerment. She could have at least acted as though she were merely here by coincidence. Looking over at Leo, anyone could see the disappointment that was etched out over his features.

"Why did you get kicked out?" Don asked the question that was on everybody's mind. His brothers kept quiet as they listened to Moose's muffled voice on the other side.

"They didn't appreciate the theatre candy I brought and passed around… and threw…" she answered. At the same time, Donatello felt like banging his head against a brick wall. Her answer was unexpected – yet at the same time, was so Moose. "Just know that gummy bears and raisinets are not appreciated by literate people." She added as an afterthought.

"Moose… literate means able to read. We're all literate." Don tried to explain.

"Yeah, well… some more than others." Surely, on the other end, Moose was pouting.

Leo grabbed the phone away from his brother. "Piper, you can stay… but I want you to try and look inconspicuous," he said seriously.

"I can do that," her voice beamed over the line.

"Is that Rian?" Everyone on the rooftop turned to Raphael and followed his arm to where he was pointing below. They followed his gaze to a short orange-haired female hobbling into the entrance on a cane.

"Where?" Moose's voice came over the phone once more.

"There." Raph didn't give any specifics as to her location. He continued to watch with concern as the petite, injured girl cautiously walked up the steps and into the coffee shop.

"Sure is." Moose found Rian's location on her own. The brothers watched as Moose hastily began walking back to the entrance, intent on reclaiming her cousin and her cousin's safety.

Donatello grabbed hold of Leo's arm and brought the phone closer to him. "No Moose! Don't let her know you're here!"

Moose stopped in her tracks and narrowed her eyes in frustration. "If my cousin is killed, I'm blaming you, Donatello," she sighed and ceased her advance.

"I'll have Raph and Mikey watch the back exit." Leonardo withdrew his arm and the phone.

With a curt nod, Raphael grabbed Michelangelo by the arm and pulled him toward the ledge around the corner. Within seconds they had disappeared from sight. Donatello and Leonardo were left on the rooftop with a waiting Moose below.

"I'm going to let you go now Moose. Just in case Raph and Mike call in, alright?" Don tried to sound calm and reassuring to soothe Moose's frazzled nerves. He could hear her weary breathing over the line and silently urged her to cease her worry.

"Alright," she consented. Moose found a nearby bench and sat down far below them.

They waited and waited. Five minutes after the phone call ended, the patrons of the coffee shop had all entered the building and were no doubt listening to the no-good professor give an out-of school lecture. An hour went by and Don took to checking the digital clock on the shell cell every five minutes. He was growing impatient and worried.

Leonardo sat in silent contemplation – half his mind on the task before him, and the other half being focused on Moose and her broken promise. Hadn't she said she would leave the fighting to those who could? True enough, this wasn't fighting, per se… but it was just as dangerous. A deranged murderer was on the loose, and she had gone straight into the line of fire.

Moose herself could be seen from far, far up, wringing her hands with worry and fear. After another hour, she jumped to her feet and resumed pacing. She went back and forth a few strides down the sidewalk and was surprised when she heard the opening of the shop doors. Turning toward the shop, she watched as the young people filed out of the coffee house. She searched frantically as they came out, but did not see Rian. Moose brought the cell shell back up and pressed a random button, hoping that it would dial someone's cell.

Donatello waited for the incoming signal that he knew would sound soon enough as he watched Moose fiddle with the phone. It rang and he pressed the button that would allow him to answer.

"She's not coming out!" Moose said fervently. The extreme alarm in her voice was unmistakable. She was truly terrified.

"Calm down Moose." Don commanded.

"No way! My cousin is inside… and not coming out… she's gonna get killed!" Moose carried on in fear. It was quite ironic, actually. She had no sense of fear when putting herself in danger – but when someone else was in trouble, Moose panicked.

"Moose!" Don tried again.

"Sorry… just…" Moose trailed off in her speech.

"Listen Piper, don't panic." Leonardo took his brother's arm and brought it forward so he could speak into the phone. He'd heard her voice – heard her panic.

"Dudes! We've got major problems." The two brothers turned to see Michelangelo bounding toward them at a rapid pace. Raphael was nowhere in sight.

"What is it? Where's Raph?" Leonardo asked uneasily.

"Some dudes took this unconscious girl out the back exit. Raph said it was Rian, but I wouldn't know since I've never seen her." Michelangelo explained in no great detail.

"Where's Raph?" Leonardo asked, still peering around for any sign of Raphael.

"He's following them." Michelangelo answered and gestured back in the direction he had just come from.

"Great." Leo grimaced.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT. I would like to borrow them for a day… but that's not likely to happen. So for now, I'll just content myself with daydreams.

Author's Notes: **This takes place after _Capricious_ and **_**Do you like the color Blue?** _This is going to confuse you tremendously if you haven't read them.

As always, comments and reviews shall be read carefully and cherished. I really appreciate all the wonderful things you guys have said so far.

Much thanks goes out to my wonderful friend – KameTerra, who oh-so nicely beta-ed these many chapters for me. Thank you very much.

Here it is! The chapter before the final... I hope you guys enjoy reading as much as I've enjoyed writing this.

* * *

Ten Days 

Chapter Nine – Truth! A course is set forth

By R. R. Ten'ou

_Knock knock knockety knock knock_

April O'Neil was awoken from her precious slumber by the sound of a loud rapping sounding upon her apartment door. She hazily opened one eye and then quickly shut it, falling back into her state of sleep.

_Knock knock knock knock_

The sound on the door grew in volume. It was altogether different from the first set of taps upon the wooden surface. April blinked both eyes open this time and tried to rouse herself into a conscious condition. The clock on her nightstand read 2:15 in the morning, but she never noticed as she was far too drowsy to make out the blurred numbers before her.

_Knock knock knock_

The knocking came faster and faster. Whoever it was, April was going to give them a serious piece of her mind. Her mind was too tired to remember that only _certain_ people had access to her apartment. With a furrowed brow April slid out of her warm, comfortable bed and padded her way across the fuzzy carpet of her bedroom.

Once she was through the living room and to the door, she peeped through the door hole to find four familiar faces distorted by the convexity of the glass. Her irritation was instantly replaced by a sense of worry. There could only be something serious going on if the guys were at her door at odd hours of the morning. April opened the door and plastered on what she hoped was a comforting smile. "Guys, how did it go?" she asked, referring to the stakeout that had taken place mere hours before.

"What? Did everyone know but me?" Moose pushed past the three turtles standing in the doorway. She was in a bit of a huff as she stomped her way into the apartment, simply glaring at the ground before her. Either she was very angry or very worried about something.

Leonardo entered next. Ignoring the slight nod April offered him when he came in, he focused his attention on the downtrodden Moose. "Looks like you knew anyway," he said, referring to the earlier incident.

"Yeah… well… it's not like you guys could go undercover," Moose argued. With her arms folded across her chest and her lips fully apparent in a pout, she strode across the room and sank down onto the couch.

"That didn't mean _you_ had to." Leo crossed the room and stood at the opposite end, facing away from Moose.

"You went undercover?" April asked Moose as she moved aside for the more composed Donatello and Michelangelo to enter. Donnie mouthed the word _computer_ to her and she motioned to where the laptop lay on her small kitchen table.

"Like something was going to happen in a place like that." Moose looked up at April in response to the older woman's question. Moose wanted April to support her decision to go undercover at the coffee house. She got nothing in response, however, as April moved across the room to where Don was typing away at her laptop.

"Rian has been kidnapped," Leo pointed out. _Everyone knows that though_, he thought to himself. The fact was weighing heavily on everybody's minds. An innocent person – who this time was somewhat connected to them through Moose – was in danger. They only had a limited amount of time to find her and hopefully find her still alive.

"Not the point." Moose knew better than anyone the fear that was plaguing them. This was her cousin… somebody she'd grown up with that was in danger. A member of her family was in trouble and she really didn't feel like listening to a lecture from Leonardo.

"Piper… we had an agreement. You weren't going to try to do anything dangerous anymore." Still – the lecture began. Leo had been highly disappointed to see her go back on her word. He, above anyone else, had been most supportive when she convinced Candon that she could live without constantly placing herself in jeopardy.

"Hold on a second. I don't consider going into a coffee shop dangerous." Sure Moose had done something incredibly risky by attempting to go to that coffee shop. Her agreement had been to let those who could fight do so because she could not. But didn't that give her the right to help out in areas that the four ninja turtles could not?

Michelangelo watched on in unusually soundless deliberation from his place on the floor as Leo and Moose continued to argue back and forth. It normally wasn't like Leonardo to simply argue for argument's sake… so he must have either been very worried or his sense of right and wrong was at stake again. Any way he looked at it, Mike simply wished the two would stop quarrelling so the group could get back to the most important crisis – finding Rian and ending this murderer's blood spree.

And God only knew where Raphael was at the moment. He wasn't answering his shell cell and they hadn't heard from him since he tried to follow their enemy earlier that night.

"You promised," Leonardo said quietly, averting his gaze from Moose to the floor before him.

"And I didn't break it." Moose grew quiet in her speech. "Here I am – safe and sound."

"Dudes… are you done yet?" Michelangelo had had enough. Both Moose and Leo looked up at the youngest brother in confusion. Somehow they had managed to block out the world around them, including Mike, Don, and April. "Bro, if you two don't stop it with the arguing…" A thought struck him mid-sentence and Mike stood from his seat on the floor and strode over to where Moose was sitting on the couch. He wordlessly picked up her bag and started fishing around in it. "Like I was saying… if you two don't stop arguing, we'll make you wear this." Mike held Raph's red mask that had yet to be returned mere inches from Leo's face.

"Shut up Mikey." Raphael's irritated voice came from the window and at once all in the room turned to face him. He climbed in the window and not too far behind him came Casey.

"I wondered where you were." April nodded to Casey as he closed the window behind him.

"Yeah… ran into Raph as he was chasin' down a car of sorts. Didn't know why - just followed." Casey replied and slumped into the chair next to April.

"We lost 'em." Raphael looked angry as ever. He seemed to radiate pure exasperation. "You find anything yet Donnie?"

"I believe so… I think I just found an address." Donnie hit one final key on the laptop. He reached across the table for a nearby notebook that was lying by an assortment of books. He opened the notebook and flipped a few pages until he came to a blank one. Taking a pen from near the pile of books he wrote down the address. "It's actually not too far from here."

"Great. So I've got a homicidal maniac living in the neighborhood?" April brushed a hand through her bed-smothered hair. Just the thought sent an eerie tingle running down her spine. Living in New York there was always a possibility for danger… but to know exactly where it was made her feel even worse. It was the same sickening feeling she got whenever she passed the abandoned Foot Tower in the city.

"Sorry April," Donnie replied in haste. He then turned to his enraged brother, Raphael. "Did you get a look at the person?" he asked, referencing the incident earlier where Rian was kidnapped.

"It wasn't him." Raphael found it hard to stand still and kept balancing from one leg to the other. "Or at least if it was, he had some kind of lackey doin' the job for him."

"That is definitely a possibility." Don nodded and ripped out the sheet of paper from the notebook.

"It was a woman. Didn't see her face though," Raphael added as an afterthought. He'd been back for ten minutes already and even that was far too long. How he'd ever let Casey talk him into returning was beyond him. And he still hadn't reclaimed his mask – as the others had done.

"Sick dude," Michelangelo commented. "Put your clothes on." He threw his brother's red mask at him.

"Funny Mike," Raphael grouched. "Real funny."

"So do we pay him a visit?" Donnie looked straight at Leonardo for an answer. If they were going to act, the sooner the better.

"I say we send in a wrecking crew." Casey stood and pounded his right fist into his left hand.

"I agree. We'll go in first. We don't know if he's guilty or not yet." April assented to the idea. She'd have to change out of her pajamas first though – but it wouldn't take more than two minutes. "It's better if fewer college professors, ex or not, know of your existence."

Leonardo nodded. "Alright – but keep your cell handy in case something goes wrong."

"I'm going too." Moose nodded and stood up from the couch.

"No – you're not," Leo countered.

"I am! She's my cousin." Moose stood firmly in place. She wanted to help in any way that she could. So what if she couldn't physically fight? There were certain things that they, as ninja turtles, couldn't do either.

"I'll keep an eye on the kid." Casey came to her rescue. He understood how much something like this meant to her. Casey had always understood from the very beginning.

"Fine," Leo sighed. "Just be careful."

* * *

_Knock knock knock knock_

April felt a sense of déjà vu as she carefully rapped on the wooden door. Hadn't it only been about an hour or so since she'd been awakened from her peaceful sleep by the knocking of her friends?

As soon as she'd changed clothes the whole lot had cleared the apartment and walked the short distance to the professor's apartment. Only April, Casey, and Moose were to enter the building at first in an attempt to speak with the professor and possibly ascertain his guilt or innocence. The turtles were without a doubt waiting someplace nearby ready at a moment's notice to strike.

_Probably on the roof_, April mused to herself as she fidgeted before the door. Casey and Moose stood just behind her, silently waiting for someone to answer.

The door opened as far as the locking chain on the inside would allow it to and a middle-aged man peered through. "Can I help you?" he asked hesitantly.

"Hello? Are you Professor Lowell?" April politely asked.

"I am. What can I do for you Ms…?" the professor looked at her awkwardly and turned his head slightly to the side.

"O'Neil. April O'Neil. These are my friends – Casey and Moose."

"Nice to meet you all." He said shortly. "May I inquire as to your business at this late hour?" his hand was placed upon the edge of the door as if he were ready and poised to slam it shut.

"May we come in?" April asked.

The professor eyed April and her friends warily and thought about his answer for a moment before delivering it. "Certainly," he said and closed the door. The trio heard the unlatching of the chain from within and was less than surprised when the door opened once more.

Professor Lowell ushered them in quickly and wordlessly motioned for them to take a seat on the gaudy purple couch at the far end of the room. April and Moose gracefully took their seats, but Casey preferred to stand next to the hideous piece of furniture. Whether he was more comfortable standing – or was actually afraid to sit on the purple monster, was anybody's guess.

"Now what can I do for you?" the professor asked as he took a cushioned armchair opposite the trio. "I'd offer you some refreshments… but I haven't any. Living on a limited budget will do that to you."

"That's alright, Professor. I'll get straight to the point." April spoke straightforwardly. "Do you know anything about the murders occurring in the sewers?"

The professor looked down at his hands folded carefully in his lap and a slight smile formed upon his face. "I knew someone would stop by concerning that. I'm simply surprised the police haven't arrested me yet," he said quite honestly.

"So then you are the killer?" Casey took a step forward, waiting only for a positive answer.

"Heavens no!" the professor brought a hand up and waved it in the air negatively.

"But you just said -" Moose started, but was cut off by a flick of the professor's hand. He might have been out of work for the past semester… but he still had the authoritative presence of an educator. The trio listened on intently, as one would do in a classroom, though it had been quite a few years since any of them had been in one.

"I might know who is though," the professor continued on. At this remark he seemed almost sad to reveal the news. His eyes were full of regret.

"Who?" April asked after a moment of silence, prodding him on with a simple one-worded question.

"The young lady I fell in love with," the professor answered quietly. His hands were once again folded in his lap and his eyes downcast in melancholy.

"Your girlfriend?" Casey took a step back, retracting from his previous motion. He too was intrigued at the professor's revelation. This mystery was becoming more and more twisted as they reached a conclusion.

"If you wish to call her that," the professor commented. "We weren't together that long though."

"Why would she be doing something like this?" April asked. She and Moose were literally on the edge of their seats listening to the professor's explanation of his sordid love story.

The professor thought for a moment exactly how he was going to word his next statement. "Jenny isn't of sound mind at the moment, it seems."

"In other words, she's gone crazy?" Moose asked, but due to her lack of couth was elbowed in the side by April.

"After I was dismissed from the university, I realized my error. Our relationship was wrong to begin with and yet I accepted my punishment with grace and bid Jenny adieu. She was such a bright student and had such a promising future," Professor Lowell explained. "There was no sense in binding her to an academic failure such as myself."

"So then what?" April ushered him on.

"Several weeks after our 'break-up', Jenny started calling day after day. I tried my best to quell her distress… and at the same time put distance between her and myself." The professor wiped away a tear that didn't seem to be there in the first place.

"But Jenny had other plans?" Casey nodded in understanding – not that he actually felt sorry for the man, but rather that he was actually following along.

"So it seems," Professor Lowell brought his gaze back toward his hands in his lap and leaned forward ever so slightly. "She quit school last semester and for the longest time I did not hear from her. I considered this a good sign… maybe she was getting on with her life. Maybe she was forgetting about me."

"But she didn't?" April asked, fascinated by the tale.

"No," the professor let out a sound that was almost akin to a hiccup. "I received a phone call from Jenny one night after I held a Milton reading at the local coffee shop. She said she was disappointed in me… and that my punishment would come in nine hours. Every time someone died I'd get a call nine hours beforehand."

"And you never turned her in?" Moose gasped in shock. This man had known that girls were dying left and right. Three of them were gone and now her cousin was potentially in danger. This was wrong – he was wrong.

"I tried my best to get her to stop. She still has such a bright future… if only she'd apply herself," the professor continued as to justify himself. No amount of explanation could rationalize what he had done: the blatant disregard of the truth and human life. He'd failed to turn in the culprit when he knew exactly who it was.

"She has a future behind bars is what she has! She has my cousin!" Moose shouted in anger. She'd had enough of the man's explanation.

"I know… not that she was your cousin, but that she'd taken another girl. That is why I was awake when you came rapping on my door." The professor pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped away the beads of sweat that were just forming on his forehead.

"You've go to tell us where she is!" Moose urged him.

"I suppose I've no choice now…" the professor looked straight at Moose with a small, strained smile. "Here is her address." He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and took a pen from the table next to him. He quickly jotted down Jenny's address and handed the paper to April. "As soon as you leave I plan to call the police and turn myself in as an accomplice. I've been contemplating it all evening since I received the call."

April folded the paper in two and held it firmly in her right hand. She stood from her place on the couch and nodded a curt goodbye to the professor.

"Right. Donnie didn't do all that work for nothing." Moose nodded. She was calm now that they were getting somewhere in this case.

Casey filed out the door before the girls. "Donnie? Who here had to pour through old, dusty books for hours on end?" he scoffed.

"Guys! Can we get going?" April said. No words were offered to the professor who sat silently in his armchair, hands folded in his lap, and crying.

"Right." Moose nodded and shut the apartment door behind her with a click. She was glad to be out of there. Sure, she felt sorry for the older man… but he'd done something she considered extremely wrong. He'd kept quiet when potentially two lives could have been saved. "Where are we going now?" she asked, following April's and Casey's lead.

"The roof," Casey looked back with a small smile. "Where else?"

"Gotcha," Moose smirked. So that's where the turtles had gone to. She followed her friends up the few staircases that they had to traverse until they came to the metal door that signified the entryway in and out of the building via the roof. With a loud metallic noise the door swung open and Moose inhaled the fresh night air.

"Guys. It's not him," Casey announced into the darkness. The turtles weren't to be seen at first, but he had no doubt that they were nearby.

Out of what seemed to be nowhere four figures landed before them. "Are you sure?" Leonardo asked with a piercing glance.

"Trust me. It's the psycho girlfriend," Casey offered and took a step to the side.

"The ex?" Raphael asked angrily. Patience had never been one of his virtues – and anyone could tell that waiting in the shadows in this duration had only served to tweak his nerves a bit more.

"The one and only," April explained. She glanced down at the watch she wore on her wrist to assess the time. "We should get out of here ASAP though. The professor plans to call the police and turn himself in as an accomplice."

"So he _did_ know about it?" Donatello was amazed by this latest development. He'd been willing to bet that the professor had been the guilty party. But then again – the files he'd read never really specified who had broken up with who between the professor and his girlfriend.

"Yes… though he wasn't directly involved. I'll explain later. Just get to this address and rescue Rian. She's still alive." April handed the slip of paper she'd held on to so tightly to Leonardo.

Leo accepted the paper and read over the address. "How do you know?"

"The girl always waits nine hours to finish off her victims. We've got six and a half to go." April gave all four a reassuring glance. This was good news at least. Rian definitely wasn't dead – yet.

"Thanks April." Leo held up the paper for a second – signifying his appreciation for the information she'd brought them.

"Hey! Where is my thank you?" Casey mocked their transaction.

"What did you do?" Mikey turned to ask him, a wide smile dancing on his features.

"I came as backup," Casey answered matter-of-factly.

"We've got to go," Leo announced to the crew assembled on the rooftop. He and his brothers turned to leave, but were stopped by a comment from Moose.

"Good luck guys." Moose offered a salute and smiled.

"What? You're not begging to come along?" Leo turned in place to look at the short blonde in astonishment.

"Leave the fighting to those who can, right?" Moose shrugged her shoulders ever so slightly.

"Now you're getting it," Michelangelo joked.

Moose gave a beaming grin. "I always had it. I did what I was able to. Now it's your turn."

"I promise we'll do our best to get her back," Leonardo assured her.

"Be sure of it," came Raphael's determined voice.

And in the blink of an eye all four turtles disappeared from the rooftop and into the darkness below. April, Casey, and Moose were left on the roof, only to stare into the noiseless night.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT. I would like to borrow them for a day… but that's not likely to happen. So for now, I'll just content myself with daydreams.

Author's Notes: **This takes place after _Capricious_ and **_**Do you like the color Blue?** _This is going to confuse you tremendously if you haven't read them.

As always, comments and reviews shall be read carefully and cherished.

Much thanks goes out to my wonderful friend – KameTerra, who oh-so nicely beta-ed these many chapters for me. Thank you very much.

Many thanks goes out to my faithful readers and reviewers - the few that there were. You guys kept me going. And don't worry... I plan on writing many more stories, so you will see more of Moose and perhaps even Rian.

Thanks for reading!

* * *

Ten Days

Last Chapter – Finale! The tenth day

By R. R. Ten'ou

"That's it?" Michelangelo asked as he and his three brothers peered down from one of the taller buildings in the neighborhood. Their eyes were focused upon a smaller brownstone building just stories below them.

"That's it," Leonardo answered while glancing one last time at the crumbled piece of paper in his right hand. Nearly fifteen minutes after their departure from the professor's apartment building they had finally reached their destination.

The building they were intently focusing on was old and dilapidated and looked ready to come down in a matter of years. Tenants living in such inhospitable conditions in New York City were not such a rare case though. The mutant brothers had no rights to make comment, as their living arrangement wasn't much better. Such an observation would be somewhat off topic anyway. The ninja turtles had come here for two reasons – to rescue Rian from the clutches of an obsessive murderer and by doing so save their friend Moose from potential sadness.

Leonardo glanced at his brothers for a moment as they looked down upon the brownstone.

Michelangelo looked antsy. There was no way to describe the youngest brother except that his usual fun-loving demeanor had been traded for a fidgety appearance. As they stood upon the building rooftop, Mikey just couldn't seem to keep still. He was bouncing from one foot to the other and constantly attempting to crack joints in any place that was willing to pop. Mike's eyes darted from window to window in the old brownstone as if he were looking for a solution that he had no way of finding. Leo realized just how hard it was on his little brother to see someone in danger - whether they knew them or not.

Raphael was obviously angry. He stood glaring at the building as if he were attempting to render it see-through with the mere force of his defiant stare. Still, it wasn't in his usual hot-headed way. Leonardo had initially been confused by his brother's crush on Moose's cousin. Sure – it'd been fun to watch him squirm as Don teased him about it the other day… but that didn't make it any less strange to Leo. Was it possible to see a person once and automatically feel attracted to said person? Whether it was possible or not was irrelevant, Leonardo decided.

Donatello leaned anxiously on his bo before him and examined the building facing them, ridden with a sense of guilt. It had been his problem and he'd dragged Rian into it in the first place. If he had only found the answers on his own – or had even refused to tell her the entire story, she might not be in the hands of danger at this very moment.

"So how do we know which apartment?" Michelangelo voiced his curiosity again and broke through the gaping silence between them.

"My guess would be the one with the light on," Donatello answered.

Peering at the building again, Michelangelo did notice that there was a single light on in the second story window below. Mikey nodded in understanding and bounced a bit on the tips of his toes where he was crouched on the rooftop.

Next to the orange banded turtle, Leonardo stared on into the light of the window. "We can't be too sure it's that apartment. I'll go look and I'll motion to you guys if it is," their fearless leader declared.

"And if it isn't?" Raphael asked.

"Then I'll just keep looking," Leonardo answered. Raphael fixed his older brother with a glare only slightly less intimidating than the one he'd been giving the brownstone just seconds before. His message was clear and it was one that Leo was used to hearing: _you're not going anywhere without us_.

"Don't give me that look," Leo sighed. "You'll be able to see me from here if anything goes wrong."

Raphael pondered Leonardo's reply. "Alright," he consented.

Leonardo was slightly surprised at his brother's assent, but he didn't say another word. Instead, he ran to the side part of the building and jumped into the shadow-filled alley below. The three brothers remaining on the rooftop watched the area below carefully, waiting to see even a flash of their older brother as he deftly made his way across the empty street. They did see him, but only for seconds at a time as he made use of his ninja skills and was soon hanging over the ledge of the lit window.

They watched as Leonardo peeked in the window and looked back up to meet their gaze. With a single pointing motion, Leonardo made sure that his brothers understood: he had found the apartment. From the calm expression on his face, nothing had gone awry yet… but the sooner they got over there and commenced their rescue, the better off everyone would be.

One by one they leapt off the building, carefully looking in all directions for any sign of anyone who might see them. In the thickening shadows of the moonless night, they had nothing to worry about. Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo were beside the brownstone in what seemed to be no time at all.

While his brothers busied themselves with the short commute from one building to another, Leonardo silently opened the window and took a better look inside. A tall black haired woman stood with her back to him, doing some action in front of her that he couldn't see.

"You're going to die," the woman quietly cooed to whatever was in front of her. "Five more hours and you're going to die." Her voice was almost whimsical as she spoke in a sing-song voice. "Really, you asked for it… talking to him so, asking him questions, debating."

"I'll show you the true meaning of a paradise lost," the woman continued. She moved around the object before her and Leonardo recognized it as an orange-haired girl, tied to an old looking wooden chair. The bound girl was very unconscious with her head rolled back in sleep and her throat very much exposed.

_Rian!_ Leo's mind shouted, though his body remained calm and composed. His eyes widened only slightly as the black haired woman, Jenny was her name according to the piece of paper, held a very large, very sharp knife along Rian's throat.

He could have stopped her. There was no doubt that a common college student (albeit a murderer as well) was no match for a trained ninja. The ninja brothers had encountered many, many foes in the past, including other ninja, evil space aliens, mad scientists, and supernatural enemies. Jenny just didn't seem to match up. She couldn't be considered an opponent to Leo. The maddened, heartbroken woman was more a hazard to herself than she was the four of them. The only problem now was to keep her from being a hazard to Rian as well.

"We were made to be man's downfall. We'll be his end." Jenny pressed the knife a little harder up against the white flesh of Rian's neck. "Six and a half more hours… surely you'll be awake by then," she laughed.

Leonardo didn't move. It wasn't as though he was up against a horde of Foot ninja. He didn't consider Jenny to be an enemy – just someone out of her right mind. Instead of rushing forth in an attempt to attack the girl, Leonardo issued a simple, single command: "Put down the knife." As he spoke, Leo was up and over the window sill and standing just before Jenny and Rian. The bound Rian, in her unconscious state did not stir through the sudden commotion.

Jenny, on the other hand, looked like a cornered animal in a cage. Her entire body shook in fright. The knife held in her right hand dangerously came closer and closer to Rian's neck with rapid speed. Jenny's movement was too fast and too uncontrolled to know the outcome.

Leonardo watched on as time seemed to stop and the knife made contact with Rian's skin. He felt as though he'd possibly made the wrong decision to stay where he was. He watched on with guilt as yet another person was going to be killed. He'd let down Rian – the person he'd come to save. He'd let down Moose by not being able to save her cousin. He'd let down his own conscience.

The knife jerkily etched a tiny nick in Rian's skin, no deeper than a very nasty paper cut.

Leo let out the breath of air he'd held unknowingly.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Jenny's eyes were wide and bloodshot. Her mouth was open and she sucked air in greedily before letting it back out in huge waves.

"Lady, do you or do you not see a turtle standing in front of you?" Michelangelo appeared in the window and quickly climbed in to stand to the left of his brother.

A small smile crept across her face as she quickly built a wall around the fear she'd initially felt and she regained her standing. The fact that there were two human-sized turtles before her and more still arriving, did not faze her in the least bit. Jenny was clearly already out of her mind, if not rapidly on her way there. "I have to kill her now. If you'll be so kind - get out of my home." She brought the blade back up to rest at Rian's throat.

"We ain't goin' anywhere." Raphael leapt through the window to stand a Michelangelo's left.

"You're _not_ going to stop me," she hissed wildly.

"On the contrary." In came Donatello, positioned between Leo and Mike.

"What gives you the right to kill her?" Leonardo asked. None of their weapons had been taken out before her eyes, though it was clear that they were armed. To keep the woman calm and distracted, they purposely left all weapons in their places.

"I have every right!" her eyes darted from right to left, going over the color-coded turtles in a mad frenzy. Though her mind didn't entirely register what they were (four talking, walking turtles), she did at least realize that there were four armed individuals standing in her home, potentially keeping her from her self-appointed mission.

"She was there… all the girls went there," she explained to justify her actions – though for them or herself was anyone's guess. "They were so smart. Of course he'd pay them a little attention – talking to them, answering their questions. That's how our relationship started." She turned the knife from side to side, watching as the light reflected on its metallic surface. "I couldn't let him love anyone else… and I had to punish him."

"Did you think I was actually going to let you get away with it?" Jenny focused her attention to the girl bound in the chair and pulled Rian's hair back sharply, causing the red-head to groan although she was still unconscious. Smirking, Jenny let go slightly and allowed Rian's cataleptic reflexes to ease back into a more comfortable position.

"He was supposed to love me!" she shouted to the group gathered before her.

"He said our love was a mistake… a mistake!" Jenny cackled. "He said he'd take his punishment, and that I should continue on with school and forget about him." Tears cascaded down her cheeks as she laughed. "As if I could ever forget!"

"So you've been killing these girls as revenge?" Donatello asked. He couldn't figure out the logic behind it all, if there was any to begin with. There was no warranted motive here, but simply the maddened ramblings of a crazy woman.

"Do you have any idea how it feels? To be told to forget about the greatest love of your life?" she asked, pointing the knife at Rian's heart for added effect before bringing it back up to the girl's throat.

"Cuckoo…" Mikey whispered and slowly brought a finger up and made a twirling gesture beside his head.

"Quiet Mikey," Don warned him, though he silently agreed with his younger brother.

"You think I'm crazy. Maybe so," Jenny let out a small chuckle at the revelation. The woman was teetering between extreme emotion and a ranging void of emotion with her speech. "Intelligence sometimes sprouts insanity, I'll give you that."

"But why kill these girls?" Leonardo asked.

"Because I've seen them lurking around the coffee shop… all literature loving girls," she answered. She was taking their distraction well, answering their questions fully and diverting her attention away from Rian. "I knew they were after him. He has such a brilliant mind."

"But why Rian? She was only there once," Raphael queried. Though he hadn't intended to, her notice once again shifted to Rian.

"This one?" Jenny reached up with her free hand and patted the unconscious girl's head. "She presented a series of formidable questions to his explanation of Milton. I knew he'd love that."

"So he paid her a bit more attention. _That_ gives you the right to kill her?" Raphael was growing more and more furious with her lackadaisical answers.

"Revenge… it's so addictive," Jenny shrugged her shoulders. It was no big deal to her. She'd keep killing and killing until her ex-love was punished for her crimes. How could the professor not be found guilty? He would be a prime suspect. Yet again logic fled Jenny's mind as she rolled her ideas over and over in her mind. "Yet again Eve shall be the downfall of Adam. Yes, _I'll_ kill the girls and _he'll_ be punished for it."

"Right. So there's no reason for you to hold on to Rian," Don suggested. "He's already been arrested." So long as he called the police like he was supposed to.

"No!" Jenny cried loudly. "She must pay as well! I was going to wait nine days with every murder… as that's how long Satan's descent into Hell was and that's exactly what they deserve. But I knew that would be far too long to wait. I figured nine hours would suffice." She turned the knife over once more and brought it back to Rian's neck. "Of course, if you're here to stop me, I might have to end her life right now."

"We won't let you do that." Don carefully, as to not arouse suspicion, reached around his side for his bag. Out of it he pulled a single shuriken and quickly as he could, passed it to Michelangelo.

"And who are you to stop me?" Jenny stood defiantly, her nose raised in the air as she looked on them with hatred.

"Lady… do you not recognize _ninja_ turtles when you see them?" Michelangelo stalled as he accepted the shuriken from his brother. Faster than the human eye, or at least Jenny's eye, could process, Mike passed the small weapon along to Raphael.

"We'll be taking her with us," Raphael commented.

And before Jenny could blink the shuriken was embedded in her hand. Blood oozed out of the gaping wound where the star was lodged and out the other side of her hand where it went through. It took Jenny a few moments to process what had happened, but when she did, the knife went haphazardly flying out of her hand and on to the ground. As unstable as she was, not once did she scream. Instead she laughed and laughed and sank to the ground in tears.

The four brothers watched in silence and let out a heavy sigh that none of them noticed.

Michelangelo was the first to move as he crossed the room to where the knife had been flung. "The coppers should be here anytime." Mikey picked up the knife.

"Should be. Let's get out of here," Leonardo commented and turned to the window.

"We just gonna leave her like that?" Michelangelo voiced, motioning to Jenny.

"And some evidence," Donatello answered, grateful that the danger was over and Rian was safe. Jenny was sobbing in the corner, cradling her bleeding hand. She looked like she was becoming fatigued as the blood gushed onto her clothing.

"Her victim cut herself free?" Mike nodded at Jenny, indicating who he was speaking about. There was a random rag lying Rian's lap and Mike picked it up and brought it to face level. "Yikes! Something reeks!" he shouted and passed the cloth to Don.

Don brought the cloth up and took a tentative whiff. "Chloroform," he said simply. How Rian came to be unconscious was then clear.

Mike cut away at the ropes around Rian's wrists with the knife. He did the same for her ankles and the rope tied around her waist. Mikey then let a deep sigh of relief and handed the knife to Donatello. "I'm free! I'm free!" he sang in a girlish voice.

"Unfortunately for Jenny." Leonardo peered out the window to see if the coast was clear. The police lights could be seen from around the corner of the building. If they were quick and quiet, like the ninja they were, they could get out undetected.

"And yet fortunately for her prey." Don took Jenny's bleeding hand, careful to grasp at it by his fingertips. She didn't know what was going on per se, but sat quietly mumbling to herself. Don pulled the shuriken from her hand and she screamed in pain as it came out. "Sorry… but this was your choice." The lodged star came free and Don placed it back in his bag, silently reminding himself to clean it later.

"Looks like she's stabbed herself," Raphael said as he watched Don take the knife and rub Jenny's hand against it to cover the blade with blood.

"Indeed… good thing the knife blade is about the same size as the shuriken, right?" Don finished and threw the knife far enough across the room that Jenny would pass out before getting to it. By this point Jenny was almost fully out of it. Her eyes were close to rolling back in her head, and unconsciousness was knocking at her door.

"Sure," Leo answered his brother's previous question. Within seconds he was fully out the window.

Don went next and offered a nod of luck to the still sleeping Rian. "We'll let you take her home Raph. Try to get her there before she wakes up."

"Hopefully she'll remember this all as a bad dream, right?" Michelangelo asked as he too climbed out the window with ease.

"She's not even conscious Mike," Raphael corrected.

"Oh yeah," Mikey smiled and his face disappeared into the darkness below.

"How come I gotta do all the hard work?" Raph muttered to himself as he scooped the sleeping girl into his arms. "Not that I mind, really." Carefully adjusting her so he was only holding her with one arm, he climbed out the window and followed his brothers into the night.

Two minutes later the sirens sounded.

* * *

Raphael carefully laid Rian on the ugly green couch in Moose's apartment. She shifted slightly in her sleep and with half-lidded eyes gazed up at him with a sleepy confusion.

"Who're you?" she asked in mumbled tones.

Raph paused a moment before answering. What was he supposed to say? _My name is Raphael. I'm a mutant turtle that just saved your life?_ This was his chance. If Rian found out about him by accident, then there was nothing he could do. Perhaps he'd be able to talk to her… get to know her. Maybe they'd end up becoming friends… or something entirely different.

"A figment of your imagination," he answered and shook the feeling of hope away. Raph grabbed the ugly orange blanket that was draped over the other end of the couch and covered her with it.

"Hmm… yeah. S'always playin' tricks on me," she spoke in jumbles before she drifted back into sleep. Pulling the orange fleece blanket up to her head, she turned over onto her side and covered her exposed ear with it.

Raphael watched her for the longest time. He'd given up his only chance at ever knowing her. Raphael hopelessly willed time to slow down knowing well that this would be the last and only time he'd ever be this close to her.

Minutes passed and soon a familiar click sounded at the door across the room. Moose was home, and she was unlocking the door. In record time Raphael was out the window once more. He left it open and watched as the front door opened and Moose made her way into the apartment.

Raph looked on as an excited Moose bounded into the apartment, her happiness written across her face. She was completely ecstatic that her cousin was home once more safe and sound. Raphael was almost afraid that Moose would wake the sleeping girl with her enthusiasm and quietly shushed her from his place on the outside.

Looking up at the window, Moose's eyes locked with Raphael's. Smiling, she came over and down to the window level and folded her arms over the edge.

"Thanks Raph," Moose spoke quietly. "For getting her home safe."

"You should watch the news later. They'll probably have the story going," he replied, not knowing what to say. Raphael and Moose had never been on the greatest of speaking terms – and things were only made more awkward by the fact that he felt attracted to her cousin, even if Moose didn't know that.

"Yeah. Well, I've got to get going. Gotta be at work in a few hours." Moose didn't talk to Raphael quite as much as she spoke to his brothers, so she took this opportunity to chat, as well as simply to thank him.

"April's still gonna open up shop?" he asked, surprised.

"Sure is," Moose answered. "She has a shipment coming in later that she and Casey have to go pick up. So I'm gonna be runnin' shop."

"Just make sure she's alright before you go," Raph said, motioning to Rian.

"Hmm? Why?" Moose raised an eyebrow in confusion. "You concerned?"

"No reason," he shrugged and turned to leave. She'd hit the nail right on the head. "Bye kid."

"You do realize I'm older than you, right?" Moose asked amusedly. Sometimes it was difficult to remember this fact.

Though it needed no real reply, Raphael turned back around and smirked at Moose. "Doesn't matter," he stated.

Moose let out a laugh and waved him off. "Bye Raph."

"Moosey?"

Moose turned from the window to see her cousin looking up at her with a very sleepy face.

"Hmmm?" Moose asked with a noise.

"Who's Raph?" Rian asked. She was slightly more coherent than she had been in her conversation with Raphael, but not much more.

Moose paused and grinned from ear to ear. "Oh, there's this cat that keeps hangin' out on our fire escape." Moose recalled a night months prior where Casey had given her the same explanation.

"We can't have kitties in here, can we?" Rian continued the conversation, though Moose was quiet sure the shorter girl would have no knowledge of it later on.

"No Rian. We can't," Moose answered, her smile fading as she closed the window.

Rian laid back against the arm of the couch. "That's a shame," she sighed and pulled the blanket higher around her as she curled into a ball.

"Sure is." Moose said with a sigh. She sank down beside the couch and smoothed Rian's unruly orange hair down with her hand. "It sure is."

**The End**

* * *

"No Sensei! Don't go in there!" Michelangelo flung himself across the room in a desperate attempt to stop his father from opening the door.

Master Splinter looked curiously at the youngest turtle. "My son, is there something you wish to hide from me?" he asked in confusion.

"Uh… maybe?" Mike was unsure how to answer the question.

The old rat debated for a moment, his hand still clutching the handle to Michelangelo's bedroom door. Though he had always tried to respect his sons' privacy, his curiosity had been piqued when he'd heard a commotion on the other side of the door earlier that day when Michelangelo was not home.

Turning the handle, Splinter carefully pulled the door open. Nobody could have guessed what happened next.

Dozens of cats flooded out of the room in a feline frenzy, happy to be out of their prison hideaway. Master Splinter was almost knocked over by the sheer number of the cats that poured forth from the room.

"No Mr. Pringles!" Mike shouted as he noticed a familiar calico speed by followed by a more familiar orange cat. "Klunk, I told you to keep them in line."

Splinter fixed his youngest son with a very fatherly glare. "Michelangelo…"

Michelangelo did his best to look innocent. "Uh… Donnie did it!"


End file.
